A report from Christian Aid, Who owes who: climate change, debt, equity and survival, concluded that the total amount owed to less industrially developed countries (LIDCs) by the more industrially developed countries (MIDCs - £200 billion) was dwarfed by the potential cost of damage inflicted on them by the global warming activities of these same MIDCs (£612 billion). It therefore calls for all ‘Third World debt’ to be written off, rather than the partial write-off proposed in September ‘99 by the G8’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.

MIDCs produce 62 times as much carbon dioxide per citizen, while LIDCs are most at risk from climate change.