By Laurie Georing

LONDON (AlertNet) - Even if richer nations give lower-income countries the money the World Bank suggests for climate change mitigation and adaptation by 2030, the recipients may struggle to successfully use it, according to Simon Maxwell, a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute in London.

In a major report on the threat of climate change, the Bank said on Tuesday that developing countries would bear 75 to 80 percent of the costs of damage caused by climate change and rich countries, which caused the emissions in the past, should pay for them to adapt to global warming.

The transfers needed are estimated to be close to a half trillion dollars a year by 2030 - a vast rise from today's figures.

"Developing countries are going to face the most extraordinary challenge" in figuring out how to handle money that could be equivalent, on average, to two-thirds of their gross domestic product each year, Maxwell said at a launch of the Bank's World Development Report in London.

Major developing countries probably will have the capacity to use the funds, which World Bank officials estimate need to rise to around $475 billion by 2030 from $10 billion now, Maxwell said.

But smaller nations - particularly those struggling with corruption or lack of staff trained in implementation - will struggle, he predicted.

"We need to think carefully about which developing countries can manage it and which cannot," he said.

Most low-income countries remain highly dependent on agriculture.

For more, see World Bank urges rich states to act now on climate