STWR - Share The World's Resources

Poor countries are disproportionately affected by climate change - a crisis not of their making and for which they are least prepared. This report calls on wealthy countries to lead global efforts to cut carbon emissions and finance adaptation. Report by the World Bank.

Poor countries need a 600-billion-dollar "Marshall Plan" annually to tackle climate change, funded by industrial countries that have benefited from an uneven pattern of economic development, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2009.

Many of the large-scale technologies that corporations and governments are proposing to prevent climate catastrophe are unlikely to be effective and should be replaced by more realistic and socially just solutions, says a report by Coporate Watch.

Without immediate action to mitigate the effects of climate change, 50 years of development gains in poor countries will be lost. Rich industrialised countries are responsible for this crisis and have the resources to tackle it - giving them a double duty to act, says a report by Oxfam.

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.