STWR - Share The World's Resources

As UN climate change talks close in Bonn, two reports spell out what is at stake. The impact of climate change is hitting hardest on the world’s poorest people, yet rich countries are responsible for three quarters of green house gas emissions - a situation that, if left unchecked, could lead to the greatest human migration in history.

Climate change is already claiming 300,000 lives and costing the global economy $125bn every year. International cooperation is crucial to tackling the catastrophe - especially since the countries most at risk are the least responsible for the crisis. A report by the Global Humanitarian Forum.

Researchers predict that the number of people affected by climate disasters will double by 2015. Our current capacity to respond to emergencies could be completely overwhelmed – unless governments acknowledge and respond to the growing threat, warns a report by Oxfam.

Mass public support and 'new ways of living' will be needed to save the global climate, and emissions of carbon dioxide will actually need to ‘go negative' during the second half of this century if targets are to be reached, according to State of the World 2009 released by the Worldwatch Institute. 

South Asia has been identified as a climate change 'hotspot' as an increase in drought, flooding, and cyclones are expected in the coming decades, according to a new report CARE International and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

World leaders led by President-elect Barack Obama may be needed to help agree even a modest U.N. climate treaty in 2009 after a rift deepened between rich and poor nations over funds and new goals to cut emissions. Reported by Alister Doyle.

The world is heading for an "ecological credit crunch" far worse than the current financial crisis because humans are over-using the natural resources of the planet, an international study warns today. Reported by Juliette Jowit.