Climate change will cost trillions of pounds unless world leaders act to tackle it, a recent report has warned.

UK chancellor Gordon Brown is due to publish the study by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern which will argue that the costs of not addressing global warming are far higher than those of doing so.

The review will be used as a wake-up call to America and other nations who insist that moves to deal with climate change must not endanger economic competitiveness.

The report claims that taking action to prevent climate change will far outweigh costs of mitigation: changes to the climate include more destructive droughts and floods, and longer and stronger heatwaves, according to the report.

In addition, more harvests would be destroyed, tropical diseases would spread, energy supplies could be threatened and soil erosion extensive. Another report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers has put the cost of curbing climate warming gases at $1 trillion.