Friends of the Earth, the campaign group, has called on the leaders of the G20 to 'wake up' to the fact that funds hidden in offshore tax havens would be sufficient to support 50pc of the world's energy needs from entirely renewable power sources by 2030.

The group says that by investing £381 billion annually, the extra funding boost would be sufficient to meet the total power needs of Latin America, Africa and most of Asia - provided entirely by green energy - which is far below the estimated £450 billion of government revenue that is currently lost across the world through the usage of tax havens that effectively allow corporations and individuals to avoid paying taxes.

The topic is certainly a hot one, with Apple only recently being ordered to repay 13 billion euros of taxes to Ireland - a landmark ruling on the tax-haven topic. Friends of the Earth says that corporate tax avoidance plus the fight against climate change should take a top joint priority billing at the next G20 summit in China.

A spokesman said that the report showed how the G20 needed to start taking action rather than resorting to talk. He explained that the energy revolution could be entirely funded by a move to ensure corporations paid their due taxes if the political will existed to make this happen.

He added that the climate change crisis was becoming more serious each year and needed concerted, rapid action to avoid the impacts of flood, drought, hunger and extremes in weather - as well as forced migrations of people and extinctions of wildlife.

The issue will be just one that the world's media will watch with interest as the G20 summit progresses in China this month.