UN: Malaria plan must be applied to climate change

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon claims that the same global co-operation that has helped to make the control of malaria an achievable reality should be applied to other issues, such as climate change.

During a speech today to celebrate the enforcement of the United Nations Charter on 24 October 1945, the secretary general praised the Global Malaria Action Plan which had made significant advances in containing a disease which he said kills a child every thirty seconds.

Only through similar unified funding, co-ordinated management and "top-notch science" could climate change also be brought under control, he said.

"We need models like this to tackle other challenges such as climate change as we approach the conferences in Poznan and Copenhagen and we need them to attain all the other millennium development goals," he said. "Let us keep building on this as a way forward, there is no time to lose. On this UN Day, I call on all partners and leaders to do their part and keep their promise."

Two major UN climate change conferences are planned for December in Poznan, Poland and November 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Aside from the UN Day celebration, the organisation also announced a major economic strategy around green business designed to help focus the global economy towards investments in clean technologies.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with leading economists, launched the Green Economy Initiative, which they describe as a " historic opportunity to bring about tomorrow's economy today".

UN under-secretary general and UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said the financial crisis was not only down to mismanagement of global markets, but also an over-reliance on finite and subsidised fossil fuels.

"The flip side of the coin is the enormous economic, social and environmental benefits likely to arise from combating climate change and re-investing in natural infrastructure – benefits ranging from new green jobs in cleantech and clean energy businesses up to ones in sustainable agriculture and conservation-based enterprises," said Achim.

Steiner said there was an urgent need to bring creative, forward-looking thinking to next month's Financing for Development Review Conference-taking place in Doha,Qatar. and a proposed financial crisis summit of the G8+5, called for by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Also speaking at the launch was Hilary Benn, UK secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who said that the green technological revolution needs to gather pace, as more and more of the worlds jobs will in future be in environmental industries. "Britain is committed to building a green economy at home and abroad: it will be good for business good for the environment and good for development. UNEP's initiative will help make this change; in particular by helping us to understand just how much we depend on the environment – soil, air, water and biodiversity – for our very existence, " he said.