you honourable speaker it is clear that the world is currently confronted with a number of complex and urgent challenges an economic crisis intractable conflicts resource depletion and lifting two billion people out of poverty are all challenges we have to face head on unfortunately however climate change will exacerbate all of these problems and will put to waste all of our efforts at resolving them the reality that the international community has to accept is that unlike our global economy the climate will not respond to short term stimulus packages nor will it take notice of positive market sentiment once a certain level of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere is crossed