"The true global cost of adapting to climate change is likely to be many times greater than official United Nations' estimates: in 2030 alone, the world could be spending more than three times the annual budget of the NHS, a study has found. A team of British experts has discovered that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has seriously underestimated the expected annual cost of dealing with climate impacts..." [The Independent]

BBC reports "...Developing nations want rich countries to provide major sums for adaptation as part of the new UN climate deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December... The new report - issued under the aegis of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Grantham Institute - says that some aspects of the UN estimates were wrong by a factor of more than 100..." [BBC News]

Reuters adds that "...The estimate has been used at UN climate meetings this year in the run-up to the December summit in Copenhagen, whose goal is a new international agreement on how to tackle global warming, the study's authors said... The authors took six months to update the UN estimate, and had it reviewed by seven leading adaptation scientists, including the lead authors of the original UN study..." [Reuters]