With World Environment Day today, the European Union Environment Commission is calling for greater ambition talks between countries to solve the supposed inevitable effects of climate change.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has today called for greater urgency and ambition in international negotiations on a new global climate agreement, warning that it represents the world's last chance to prevent climate change from reaching dangerous levels.

Last week a study for the Global Humanitarian Forum underlined the human tragedy climate change already represents.

Today, climate change seriously affects 325 million people every year, kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and extreme weather, and causes global economic losses of over $125 billion annually.

These numbers are projected to rise substantially over the next 20 years.

A new global climate agreement is due to be finalized at the Copenhagen climate conference in December, the world's last chance to prevent dangerous, perhaps even catastrophic, levels of climate change that are projected by scientists to occur as early as 2050.