Developing nation climate adaptation bill to hit $790bn a year: report

PARIS: Developing countries could face a bill of $790 billion (741 billion euros) per year by 2050 for adapting to climate change, anti-poverty agency Oxfam said Wednesday.

Carbon-curbing pledges which form the cornerstone of a climate rescue pact to be sealed at a UN summit opening in Paris next week are insufficient, it said in a report.

Current commitments from some 170 nations put the world on track to warm by three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over mid-19th century levels -- a full 1 C higher than the United Nations target.

Unless much more is done, developing nations will end up spending about 50 percent more on climate adaptation by mid-century than they would under a 2 C scenario, the report said.

"World leaders need to step up. We need further cuts to emissions and more climate funding," Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said in a statement.

"The human cost of climate change must be central to discussions in Paris so we get a better climate deal for poor people," she said.

In addition to costly impacts like flooding, droughts and extreme weather, developing nations' economies stand to lose $1.7 trillion annually by 2050 if warming breaches 3 C, the report says.

A key test for Paris will be to include a mechanism in the pact to periodically review and improve the pledges until the 2 C goal comes into view.

Countries do not agree how often reviews should be done, or whether there should be an obligation to automatically ramp up efforts.

Money will be a make-or-break issue at the talks. Rich nations have pledged to muster $100 billion per year in financial support for poor countries from 2020.

A UN-commissioned estimate showed international climate finance amounted to $62 billion in 2014.

Developing nations want assurances that the flow of funding will be reliable and recession-proof.

And they want assurances that money will go not only towards "mitigation" programmes allowing their shift away from climate-harming fossil fuels, but also for shoring up their defences against climate impacts -- "adaptation" in climate jargon.