Despite helping to pioneer the modern fuel cell, the UK is losing ground in its development compared with other countries, a survey says. The report, by industry sponsored analysts at Fuel Cell Today, finds that only a fraction of fuel-cell-related patents have been lodged by UK companies. Most come from the US, Japan and Germany.

Poor investment by the UK Government is partly to blame, say analysts. The introduction of fuel-cell powered vehicles is seen by many as a key step in one day making significant reductions in emissions. However, it may be some years before the technology is fully developed - and the report says that the UK's role in this process is "uncertain".

David Jollie, one of the report's authors, said: "Development of a completely new engine technology is going to take quite a few years, and a lot of work has got to go on around the area. "If you don't start doing that now, you have the problem of missing the boat."

There is only one fully functioning commercial fuel cell in the UK - providing power at a swimming pool in Woking. This, however, had to be sourced from the US because no UK company could supply it. Research funding available to UK groups is dwarfed by more than a billion dollars pledged for the development of cleaner hydrogen vehicles by President George W Bush this year. "We're not investing enough money and there isn't enough government support for fuel cell development" said Julie Foley of the Institute of Public Policy Research

Many of the proposed applications for fuel cells are transport-related and the UK Department of Transport also offers funding, as does the Carbon Trust and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Julie Foley, from the Institute of Public Policy Research, said that British firms had the chance to be at the forefront of fuel cell research. However, she said: "At the moment we risk losing out on that opportunity, because we're not investing enough money and there isn't enough government support for fuel cell development."

It continued a warming trend that has set records for the last five years. Only 1998 was warmer. The planet is now 0.6 C warmer than in 1900, an increase that scientists attribute to human activity.

It was presented at the first joint meeting here of the leading European and American geoscience societies, the European Geophysical Society (EGS), the European Union of Geosciences (EUG) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

While the Earth warmed in 2002, the trend in Antarctica was toward cooler-than-average temperatures, a pattern consistent with global climate change, according to Dr Anne Waple of Noaa.

While global rainfall was average overall, El Nino contributed to extreme drought in the US, comparable with the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and in Canada, Australia, West Africa and India.

Droughts continued in parts of central America, and central Europe experienced near-record floods.

"But we are operating in a world that is warmer than it was 100 years ago," she said. "Certainly that baseline climate change plays a role."

The meeting, the EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, heard details of research on the cause of Europe's catastrophic floods and the lessons learned from them.

"It was a very fast-happening flood," said Hans Wiesenegger, an Austrian hydrologist from Salzburg, where the river Salzach inundated the city.

The 2002 floods are still considered rare events and attributed to natural cycles. Dr Waple said: &qu