Global Warming to cost $20 trillion - 4

British billionaire Richard Branson, who has decided to invest heavily in "biofuels'' along with his Virgin brand of several hundred companies, will be a special guest at the assembly meeting, Kerim said. "He was one of the first who reacted and who said that he's prepared to finance projects for clean energies and technologies,'' Kerim said. Like Ban, who said in December that his No. 1 priority is persuading the world to agree to new controls on global warming gases before the end of 2009, Kerim calls the challenges of climate change "my flagship topic.'' In his report, Ban warned that global warming would probably affect women more than men. "The challenge of climate change is unlikely to be gender-neutral, as it increases the risk to the most vulnerable and less empowered social groups,'' he said. Annie Petsonk, a lawyer for the advocacy group Environmental Defense, said global warming will most affect poor people and minorities, because the wealthy can spend more to adapt. "Women in poorer communities are going to face greater challenges protecting their children from the spread of diseases, polluted water, water shortages and so on,'' she said.