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I am bit confused by the use of Indirect questions in the sentence. Moreover, it is being very difficult for me to use backshift method for interrogatives.
In the given sentence, please tell me if the word order used is correct or not. And in the end, use of direct interrogative is correct or not.

  1. I want to know who is the subject of global warming and climate change whether developed or the developing countries?
  2. I want to know who is the subject of global warming and climate change. Are the rich or the poor?

finally, do we use question mark with "I want to know .............."?

Umer Malik
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Who is the subject should be instead who the subject is if there is an indirect question. In other words, put the conjugated be form after the subject in indirect questions. If the subject here is the full the subject of global warming and climate change, then it may be better actually to move the is all the way to after this full length subject: I want to know who the subject of global warming and climate change is ...

... climate change whether developed or the developing countries? needs work to become correct: ... climate change, whether in developed or developing countries. Basically, there needs to be a comma after climate change, the two complements of whether need to have the same form (both using the article the, or neither using the), the word in needs to be added after whether, and there should not be a question mark since the question is indirect.

Finally, Are the rich or the poor? needs some work as well to be fully clear. One option is to use the singular is instead of the plural are, which follows from the idea that there is an implied dichotomy in your question, where only one option is possible as the answer. In this approach, the result could be Is it the rich or the poor?. If the word it is undesirable here, the word subject could be used in its place: Is the subject the rich or the poor?. Another approach is to make it clearer that two options are being contrasted. One way to do this is to separate the options into individual sentences: Are the rich? Or are the poor?.

Michael
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    No, the verb has to be are. Consider: "The rich are different". "The rich" is a plural noun. (Unless you make a dummy it the subject, as in your suggestion. – Peter Shor Dec 06 '15 at 10:21
  • So should i say,"who the subject is of global warming........"? – Umer Malik Dec 06 '15 at 10:26
  • @Peter -- There are different ways of correcting the sentence. I see you do not like my first suggestion here which uses it. I agree that the rich is natively plural when speaking of people, but that does not mean I cannot use a trick like I did to make it simpler to say. Both ways are technically correct. The difference is a matter of style. – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 10:30
  • There may be different ways of correcting the sentence, but your answer implies that you should use "is the rich or the poor" instead of "are the rich or the poor" because there's an implied dichotomy; this is wrong. You use a singular with or for singular subjects; plural for plural subjects. – Peter Shor Dec 06 '15 at 10:32
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    I have updated my answer to be more encompassing of different solutions. – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 10:39
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    @Umer -- Yes, that sounds fine. Another way would be to move the is all the way to the end: "who the subject of global warming and climate change is". – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 10:40
  • I am impressed by the quality of your answer. Finally that means "i want to know" introduces indirect question. Am I right? – Umer Malik Dec 06 '15 at 10:48
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    Yes, "I want to know" is a good way to introduce an indirect question. There are some other ways too, such as "I would like to know", "I was wondering", and "I have wondered". Hopefully my answer was of help. Naturally I was not able to cover all possible solutions or considerations in this one answer, hence the small argument in the comments section. I tried to update my answer accordingly since it helps to have different perspectives. – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 10:58
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    Sir, I am always baffled by indirect interrogatives. I think it is a tricky part for the non-native speaker. – Umer Malik Dec 06 '15 at 11:08
  • I believe you that it is tricky. I have been helping an Asian fellow with his English recently, and one of the most common mistakes he makes is having the subject and verb in the wrong order in indirect questions. I suppose the problem is that not all languages use the same reversal when differentiating questions from statements or direct from indirect. – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 11:12
  • Yes, you are right about that. For Asians, it is a little bit tricky or confusing. But, for me, I think it is good to remember if one is asking a direct question without any additional words then the word order will change or question mark will follow; otherwise, with all polite ways of asking, the statement or the word order will remain same, nor question mark will be used. – Umer Malik Dec 06 '15 at 11:16
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    Indeed. Only direct questions have a question mark. Sometimes you may find instances where someone uses a question mark (or even three), often preceded by an ellipsis (three dots), after an indirect question, but this is non-standard usage. For example, someone may write: "I was wondering if maybe you were busy... ???" (this is still an indirect question) – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 11:24
  • Look that is tricky. I think a person should avoid using a question mark in indirect questions. Would you grade use of a question mark in a given sentence correct? – Umer Malik Dec 06 '15 at 11:28
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    I am not actually a teacher by profession. I simply have more experience learning about English (and language in general) than most English speakers. I would not consider use of a question mark correct for an indirect question. When I do see this usage, it is usually in an email from a friend or acquaintance. Hence, formal language does not have this usage, but informal (familiar) usage sometimes does. Basically, you could expect to find this usage sometimes in the same places you might find emoticons or other informal elements. – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 11:37
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    Yes, now the truth about the use of a question mark in embedded questions in unveiled. My thoughts and ideas are now cleared, Sir. – Umer Malik Dec 06 '15 at 11:40
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    I am glad I could be of service. – Michael Dec 06 '15 at 11:51