Detailed information on weather patterns is available to governments via the World Meteorological Organisation, but it does not always get passed on to small-scale farmers on the ground, said Annan at the close of the first high-level meeting of the new humanitarian forum.

During the two-day high-level meeting, luminaries from the political, business and non-governmental worlds met to debate on solutions for climate change.

Annan stressed that the forum was not a 'talkshop', pointing to the weather initiative as an example of a concrete measure arising from the event.

He told reporters that the initiative would target African farmers as a start, and that he hoped to work with the private sector in disseminating weather information available at the WMO to the fields.

Talks were now underway with companies such as mobile phone giant Ericsson.

"If you link up with a private company, let's say, Google, which has a global reach and can have it on their system where a farmer in India can assess it and tell the other farmers that this year we are going to have droughts. Or the rains are delayed," he said, then farmers could save the seeds until a more suitable planting conditions.

Besides the weather service, the forum would also engage insurance firms on providing insurance coverage for farmers, he said.

On Tuesday, Annan had opened the forum with a call for 'climate justice', saying that it was polluters who should pay for the effects of climate change, and not the poorest and most vulnerable.

He called for funding to be made available to help disadvantaged communities adapt to the effects of global warming and urged the international community to focus on adaptation measures.

"We must have climate justice. As an international community, we must recognise that the polluter must pay and not the poor and vulnerable," said Annan.

At the session, the UN's top official on climate change Yvo de Boer also called for urgent action by world leaders, saying that political leaders should be held accountable to their commitments.

"The main problem I see at the moment is an unbelievable, almost criminal lack of leadership," he said.

De Boer said government officials and leaders were gathering at events to pledge their commitments, but follow-up action was lacking.

"I see these high moments of commitments and then basically, we fall back into rather conventional negotiations and haggling over issues that would not take us to the solutions that we need," he said.

"My main call would be for accountability -- to hold political leaders accountable to what they say in these international events."

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