Christian development agency Tearfund has said that the major international climate change conference in Nairobi in two weeks will be the first real test of global will on climate change following Monday's release of the Stern Review.

Sir Nicholas Stern's report, 'The Economics of Climate Change', said that there was still time to "avoid the worst impacts of climate change if we act now and act internationally".

Tearfund's Advocacy Director, Andy Atkins, responded to the publication of the Stern Review with a challenge to world governments to take immediate steps in Nairobi in two weeks.

"The need for urgent global action on climate change politically, economically and morally has never been clearer. World governments face one of their biggest ever tests of collective will and they can make a start in COP12 conference in Nairobi next week," he said.

Tearfund said it was critical for world governments meeting at the conference to produce a timetable for agreeing the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol, and focus on setting tougher and more binding targets to cut global carbon emissions.