Kofi Annan wasn’t done serving society when his 10-year tenure as UN secretary-general ended in 2007. He went on to establish the Global Humanitarian Forum, whose mission, basically, is to save the world.

The Forum plans to focus on different causes through the years. Their first cause: climate change. They see it not necessarily as a political or environmental issue, but as a human one, with many lives at stake – lives they aim to save.

To that end, the Forum has released its first report on climate change’s human toll. Their research found 300,000 people die each year due to climate ‘side effects’ such as malnutrition and malaria, and that 99% of these deaths are occurring in developing countries that, ironically, aren’t a part of the problem because they barely contribute to overall global-warming emissions.

The report is meant to help spur action at December’s climate conference in Copenhagen, which will decide what measures should replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.