Effective Strategy for Dealing with Climate Change Needed

Ray Kyle-The Acting British High Commissioner to Malaysia

Abstract, The Star 9 October 2010.

Foreign policy, at its heart, is about ensuring the security and prosperity of our citizens. And we cannot achieve this unless we develop an effective strategy for dealing with climate change. Climate security is inseparably connected to energy security, food security and water security.

This is why William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, gave a major speech on climate change at the Council on Foreign Relation in New York on Sept 27.

In his speech, he said that failure to respond to climate change was inimical to the values of United Nations and Britain, “undermining trust between nations, intensifying competition for resources and shrinking the political space available for co-operation”.

Without an effective response, our security will be threatened and our economies will weaken. The poorest and most vulnerable will bear the brunt of the impact of climate change.

British are responding. It is about to establish a Green Investment Bank, to leverage faster flows of private capital into low carbon infrastructure and to move away from our dependence on oil and gas.

We are also radically transforming our electricity network and pushing the European Union to cut emissions by 30% by 2020.

But an effective response cannot be developed alone. We need others to act too. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, global average temperatures could increase by 4°C by the end of the century, and possibly as early as 2060.

According to the Asian Development Bank, if no action is taken, the South-East Asian region could collectively suffer a loss equivalent to 6.7% of GDP annually by 2100, more than double the global average loss.

So it was very encouraging to hear Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in his speech at the UN General Assembly on Sept 27, emphasising “the need to bridge the gaps towards resolving and addressing the issues of climate change which affect the lives and livelihoods of the peoples of the world and our future generations ”.

As the Foreign Secretary said, “if we do, we can still shape our world. If we do not, the world will determine our destiny”.