Friends of the Earth Australia released a report in 2003, "Changing the future of the world's poor?" which outlines the impacts of climate change on United Nations Millennium Development Goals in the Global South. Below is an excerpt from this report.

There has been growing awareness of the impact of environmental factors on poverty - particularly for Indigenous peoples and peoples living largely subsistence based lifestyles. As climate change science has become increasingly clear, models predict that the poorest peoples of the world are going to be disproportionately vulnerable to climate change (see IPCC report). Poor populations have little ability to influence energy policy, and few resources with which to respond to the increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

MDG One: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Economic sustainability is greatly threatened by increased extreme weather events such as cyclones, flooding, and extended periods of drought. These events are predicted to increase in both frequency and intensity with climate change (ibid). Natural disasters interrupt local and national economic systems through damage to local infrastructure such as roads, bridges and ports. Both large scale and subsistence fishing and farming is threatened by damage to boats and crops.

International climate predictions include increased periods of extreme dryness (drought) with shorter and more intense periods of rainfall (flash flooding). In addition, extreme weather events such a cyclones, bushfires and tornadoes, are predicted to become more frequent and more intense. Both of these forms of climate change will have a great impact on food systems and jeopardise food security in many regions.

MDG Two: To achieve universal primary education
The impact of climate change on education standards and accessibility is connected to the range of infrastructure, resource and service interruptions caused by extreme weather events and increasing scarcity of food and water. People will struggle to maintain regular schooling for children when roads are closed, buildings are damaged or when more time is required to get food and water. The economic impacts of climatic change for peoples reliant on natural resources such as crop farmers and fisher-folk will mean increased pressure for children to engage in paid employment rather than attend school.

MDG Three: Promote gender equity and empower women
Climate change will disproportionately affect the world's poor, approximately two thirds of whom are women. Women are also more vulnerable to death and injury from extreme weather events, are more vulnerable to communicable diseases, and have a greater reliance on subsistence agriculture.

MDG Four and Five: Reduce child mortality and improve maternal health
Women and children are most vulnerable to hunger related deaths and illness which would be indirectly exacerbated by climate change through increasing food and water shortages. Health problems caused by climate change include injury from increased numbers of people exposed to flooding, weather extremes and subsequent increases in the experience of cholera, diarrhea and malnutrition; and increased heat stress and heat related deaths (as evidenced by the 14,000 people who died from the heat in France in 2003).

Particularly concerning is the rapid increase in the prevalence of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, with the susceptibility zone for vector-borne diseases growing as a result of temperature increases and seasonal abundance of mosquitoes. Children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to malaria, which can also contribute to prenatal mortality, low birth weight and maternal anaemia (World Bank).

MDG Six Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The impacts of climate change on the incidence of malaria is outlined above. Whilst there is no direct relationship between HIV/AIDS and climate change, peoples already living with HIV/AIDS will be extremely vulnerable to food shortages. Scientists from the World Health Organisation stated at the World Climate Change Conference in Moscow that an average of 160 000 people die a year as a consequence of global warming. This figure is also said to double by 2020 as climate change effects increase. Most of the global warming related deaths are a result of malaria and malnutrition as increased temperatures, flash flooding and droughts affect vector borne diseases and food security.

MDG Seven: Ensure environmental sustainability
Climate change provides an exceptionally clear indication that the over-consumptive and resource intensive lifestyles of the global north are compromising the future of the global south as well as our own unique ecosystems, human health and infrastructure. The already occurring experiences of climate change are a direct indication that we need to move to a future of sustainable energy sources and land-use practices.

Renewable energy and energy efficient technologies have the ability to provide the world with our energy needs, while providing the industrial countries of the world an opportunity to move to a fairer share of resource use (given that Australia needs to reduce its consumption of fossil fuels by a factor of 18).

Target One: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
Increases in temperatures will lead to increases in evaporation of fresh water sources. Melting glaciers and ice sheets pose the risk of seasonal stores of fresh water decreasing. Predictions for the Australian and Oceania region are for drier seasons as we shift toward more El Nino like events, such as the droughts experienced in Papua New Guinea and Australia. In the 1998 droughts the Federated States of Micronesia ran out water and the US Government provided desalination equipment for the urban center of the Marshall Islands.

Target Two: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.
In simple terms, not only will climate change increase the potential for slum dwellers to remain in absolute poverty, it will also render some nations of the Pacific and Asia without land for people to reside on.

MDG Eight: Develop a global partnership for development
The United Nations Environment Program estimate that climate change related disasters could be costing the world US$300 billion within a few decades. The benefits of investment in development could be entirely absorbed by dealing with the costs of weather related disasters, which in turn could affect the Gross Domestic Product, level of indebtedness, state of public finances, and investment in development in poor countries. Climate change calls for a collective response in the form of global partnerships based on the recognition that climate change presents significant threats to achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those related to eliminating poverty and hunger and promoting environmental sustainability.

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL/TARGET	CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	Economic security given increase in weather extremes Diminishing bio-diversity and access to natural resources Diminished crop yields Reduced fisheries due to coral bleaching and increased calcification of coral Increasing soil salinity
2. Achieve universal primary education	Lifestyle demands of increased time seeking food, water and cash income reduces time for education Increased environmental refugees and ill-health impacts as barriers to attending classes
3. Promote gender equity and empower women	Impacts on women as are already 2/3 of the world's poor Women's greater reliance on subsistence and natural resources for income
4. Reduce child mortality	Health impacts on children as are particularly vulnerable to flood-related, vector-borne and hunger related diseases
5. Improve maternal health	Health impacts on mothers, particularly given maternal vulnerability to malaria
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases	Malaria and other vector-borne diseases predicted to dramatically increase with extreme weather events, increased flooding and temperature rises Malaria zone extended, especially in Australia-Oceania
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability Target: Halve number of people without access to safe drinking water Target: Achieve significant improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers	Continued financing of fossil fuel based technology/development at the expense of local communities and the global atmosphere Increased water shortages as a result of changes in rainfall patterns, greater periods of drought and salt water incursion into fresh water reserves Sea-level rise for urban dwelling poor, for the vast majority of the world's poor living in flood prone areas (particularly Asia) Loss of arable land, particularly in coastal areas
8. Develop a global partnership for development	Dealing with the costs of weather related disasters could affect the Gross Domestic Product, level of indebtedness, state of public finances, and investment in development in poor countries.