As World Poverty Day approaches, Christian Aid says it is now vital to introduce a new United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which will require governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as an indispensable part of the fight against poverty.

"We must recognise that changes in the climate are already undermining any hope of meeting the existing eight Millennium Development Goals on poverty. It is impossible to target poverty without targeting climate change and therefore illogical not to have a stand-alone goal calling on the major polluters to cut emissions. It is high time that a climate change Millennium Development Goal now takes its rightful place alongside the existing eight other anti-poverty pledges," said Andrew Pendleton, Christian Aid's senior climate change analyst.

"If the first aim of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve poverty by 2015, we cannot ignore climate change which is wrecking poor peoples' lives on a daily basis,' said Mr Pendleton.

In a recent report, Christian Aid revealed that by the end of the century climate change could be responsible for the death of more than182 million poor people in sub Saharan Africa from increased disease alone.

"We must use this World Poverty Day to highlight all the injustices perpetrated on the world's poorest people. To enshrine a clear commitment by the rich countries to drastically cut their greenhouse gas emissions would make a significant start," Mr Pendleton added.

The Christian agency recently welcomed the Government's decision that the Climate Change Bill should be considered in next month's Queen's Speech. Such legislation would send a clear message to governments in the developing world that the UK is serious about tackling climate change.

"It's very important for the world's poorest people, who rely on action in rich countries to reduce the risk of runaway climate change because as very low emitters themselves, there's very little they can do except hunker down and wait for apocalypse," said Paul Valentin, Christian Aid's International Director.