Paul Hohnen Sustainability Strategies

This letter was published in Financial Times on April 9 2007.

Climate change will be a key test for United Nations

From Mr PAUL HOHNEN

Sir, The UK's bid to place climate change on the agenda of the UN Security Council ("UK to host key talks on climate change", April 5) will be a decisive test for the organisation, and of government leadership. In the wake of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and the Stern Review, a clear case has been made for putting climate change on the top of the security, political and economic agendas.

Looking at the current international institutional architecture, the question becomes "if not the Security Council and if not now, then where and when" do we tackle the impacts of climate change at a high level and in a strategic manner?

While a key part of the response, neither the IPCC nor the Kyoto structures are suited to the full range of issues involved. Similarly, it is hard to see how an inter-agency committee of existing human rights, economic and technical organisations could generate the required focus and priority. (Why, for example, didn't the Stern Review come from one of these?)

The international community has been slow in responding to the full implications of climate change, which has been flagged as a priority issue at UN level at least since 1987. Legalistic arguments about mandates will simply not be credible. Governments should either give the Council a mandate, or tell us where they do plan to run a co-ordinated and serious global response.

It is worth remembering that both the United Nations and European Union were built on the rubble of past foreign policy mistakes. Here is a golden opportunity to anticipate and act on future dislocations that could prove to be just as calamitous.

Paul Hohnen, Sustainability Strategies, Amsterdam 1017 SL, The Netherlands

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007