Climate change poses huge threats to the sustainability of the environmental resources we all depend on. It also threatens human health and could increase social instability.

Developing countries are likely to be affected the most, and be least able to adapt quickly. As a result, the number of years of life lost from climate change in poor African countries is predicted to be 500 times higher than that in Europe.

Poor people in developing countries are the most directly dependent on the environment's resources (such as food crops, water, wood and fish) for their livelihoods. In Africa, for example, agriculture accounts for two thirds of the workforce and around half of household income and food. Threats to the sustainability of the environment directly threaten to increase poverty and malnutrition.

But as well as threatening livelihoods through changes in freshwater supplies and crop yields, climate change will also affect the spread of disease; increase the number of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, and fires; and permanently displace millions of people.

Developing countries will be worst affected partly because of geography and partly because they lack the resources to adapt quickly to the impacts of climate change. As temperatures increase and rainfall patterns change, crop yields are expected to drop significantly in Africa, the Middle East and India, while densely populated coastal areas and small island states will be particularly vulnerable to floods. Increased flooding will spread more water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, while droughts will breed insects and rodents affecting food, water supplies and health. With rising temperatures, diseases like malaria, West Nile disease, dengue fever and river blindness will shift to new areas.