Diplomats from the 43 Caribbean, African and Pacific nations grouped as Aosis (Alliance of small island states) at the UN climate talks in Cancún said that they faced "the end of history" if rich countries did not raise their ambition to hold temperatures well below 2C.
According to the report by researchers at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment, the damages in the 15 Caricom countries could amount to between $4bn and $6bn a year and with infrastructure costs running to tens of billions in many countries.
The study, which does not consider the costs of coral loss, or the possibility of increased hurricane or storm activity with climate change, says a rise of 1 metre, would result in the sea encroaching by around 100m on average in all coastal states in the region.
This loss would force more than 100,000 people to move, erode beaches, contaminate fresh water supplies and decimate or degrade the tourism industry on which most countries have come to depend. Read the full report here.
Source: John Vidal, Cancún, guardian.co.uk.
