A report by Oxfam has warned a predicted increase in the number of people affected by climate disasters could overwhelm emergency responses.
The report named the Right to Survive calls for reforms of humanitarian systems in order to cope with the precited mayhem caused by climate change.
It predicts that in six years time the number of people affected by climate disasters could rise by 54 percent to 375 million people worldwide a year.
Oxfam's policy adivisor in Wellington, Marianne Elliott, says people's livelihoods will be under threat.
"We know that the kind of climate risks in this report are of serious risk in the Pacific. They live in villages that are very close to the coast or they rely on the ocean or on land for subsistance livelyhoods. We also have an urbanisation trend, where they might be living in conditions that also make them vulnerable."
Marianne Elliott says the international community must act swiftly to re-engineer the way it responds to, prepares for and prevents disasters to save lives.
