A "nine-planet" lifestyle

Across the world, 1.6 billion poor people still rely on wood and animal dung for fuel -- 930 million of them live in East and South Asia. While they are left in the dark, rich countries are running up the energy bills. If each poor person on the planet had the same energy-rich lifestyle as the United States or Canada nine planets would be needed to safely cope with the pollution, says Fighting Climate Change.

The Report points out that even though China will overtake the US as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the next 10 years, a person in the US still emits on average five times more carbon dioxide than a person in China, or over fifteen times more than a person in India. The average air-conditioning unit in Florida emits more CO2 in a year than a person in Cambodia during his or her lifetime.

"The critical challenge for Asia in the face of climate change is to expand access to affordable energy, while at the same time decarbonizing growth," says UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervi, "International cooperation is vital to unlock win-win scenarios that enhance both the climate security and the energy security that are vital for growth and poverty reduction."

The Report recommends establishing a Climate Change Mitigation Facility (CCMF), financed by developed countries and designed to provide incentives,including access to clean energy technology, to guide developing countries to a greener development pathway.

This is essential because developing countries will be responsible for an increasing share of emissions, say the authors. For example, the current level of power generation capacity in China is set to double by 2015 -- equivalent to current capacity in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom combined -- and will rise another 60 percent by 2030. Coal is likely to account for three-quarters of the total increase. Over the same period in India, power generation capacity will amount to roughly twice current power generation in California, again with coal as the lead source. As such, the authors stress that addressing climate change effectively will require serious investment in the cleanest possible coal technologies coupled with an increase in the use of clean and renewable energy sources and maximum energy efficiency.

"Properly financed technology transfer from rich countries to poor countries has to be the entry price that developed countries pay for their carbon trail," says Mr. Watkins.