Close to 80% of the entire human toll of climate change exclusively concerns children in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia succumbing to malnutrition, diarrheal disease or malaria, discloses the report.

Communities most exposed and vulnerable are being completely overwhelmed by just small increases in extreme weather, leading to situations similar to this year's floods in Pakistan.

President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, founder of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, said: "The Maldives stands at the climate change frontline. So it has always been crystal clear to us what must be done. But what happens to the Maldives today will happen to others tomorrow. "

"The Monitor helps to bring that clarity of vision to the entire world. We aim to become carbon neutral as a country by 2020. Those who follow our lead and adopt renewable energy and green technologies will be the winners of the twenty-first century." Nasheed said.

Half of all economic losses fall on industrialized countries, with the United States worst hit by overall damage costs.

But climate change will seriously worsen global inequalities.

Smaller total economic losses mask seriously greater relative costs elsewhere: more than 4% of GDP on average for the South Pacific region. Where poverty is most extreme, especially Africa, so is the degree of economic losses. And over 99% of all fatalities occur in developing countries.

"If we let pressures more than triple, or worse, no amount of humanitarian assistance or development aid is going to stem the suffering and devastation. Highly fragile countries will become graveyards over which we pour billions of dollars. Low-lying islands will simply not be viable anymore, then disappear. We will all pay and we will pay big time," said DARA Director General Ross Mountain, who previously headed large UN field operations, including for the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.

(China Daily December 4, 2010)