300 Million People Now Impacted By Climate Change

The Global Humanitarian Forum published its latest report yesterday in Geneva. 'The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis' has been hailed as the first global report into the social cost of climate change.

300 million people are currently affected by climate change, but this is expected to double to 660 by 2030, or 10% of the world's population. The death toll by 2030 would stand at half a million people every year.

99% of these deaths will be in the developing world, the report continues. This represents a serious justice problem, as the developed nations bear a far greater responsibility for CO2 emissions. The poorest 50 countries in the world account for just 1% of global carbon emissions.

The Global Humanitarian Forum, in response to this injustice, call for a substantial increase in aid for adaptation. Global funds for climate change adaptation are currently less than half a billion, a figure which needs to increase a hundredfold for Sub-Saharan Africa or low-lying areas of South Asia to avoid devastation.

The report comes ahead of preparatory talks in Bonn, Germany, before the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen in December. The Copenhagen summit is widely regarded as a 'last chance' for a global agreement on emissions.