The tropics, home to many of the world's poorest nations, will be hard hit by global warming even at the lower end of the Paris climate goals, exacerbating inequality and worsening stresses on human populations and ecosystems alike, a new paper argues.

Research published Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters examined the likely climate change impacts on wealthy and poorer countries under the 1.5 degree-2 degree warming limit - compared to pre-industrial times - as set by the 2015 Paris accord.

People volunteer to be sprayed in Karachi, Pakistan, as the mercury climbed well into the 40s this month. Credit:AP

Australia's tropical north - a region targeted for greater development in the future - will not escape the effects.

“People in Darwin will experience more of a shift in their climate than people in Melbourne, for example," said Andrew King, a climate scientist at Melbourne University and co-author of the report.