"Developing countries will need as much as $100 billion per year until 2050 to adapt to climate change, an amount that would nearly double current foreign aid flows from developed nations, the World Bank said. Poorer nations need between $75 billion and $100 billion annually to 'enjoy the same level of welfare in the future world as they would have without climate change,' the World Bank said in a report Wednesday released in Bangkok, where envoys met to discuss a global environmental accord...." [Bloomberg]

AP adds that "...the study, [titled The Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change,] has found that the largest costs to developing nations will come as the result of intense rainfall and rising sea levels, which will increase costs for infrastructure projects such as roads and flood defenses. Although agriculture is the industry most obviously affected by climate change, it will be relatively easier to adapt, the Bank said...." [Associated Press/Factiva]

AFP writes that "...World Bank Economist Sergio Margulis, who headed the study...said developing countries, like their rich counterparts, also had a duty to reduce CO2 emissions 'to avoid the unmanageable consequences of higher temperatures.'... If nothing is done, the report argued, global warming would kill half the species on the planet, flood 30 percent of coastal wetlands, and cause a steep rise in malnutrition and disease...." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]