E3G

World’s Most Wanted: Climate Change

By Chris Littlecott

“We need to treat climate change not as a long-term threat to our environment but as an immediate threat to our security and prosperity.”

That’s the message John Ashton sets out in an article for the BBC website’s ‘Green Room’ series, following his move from E3G to his new role as Special Representative for Climate Change at the UK Foreign Office.

In an article which reflects his personal views, John discusses how climate change poses a tremendous diplomatic challenge, stating:

If we want to achieve climate security, governments will need to invest more resources in the emerging techniques of soft power. There is no backstop: the politics and diplomacy have to work.

Governments will need, as a matter of security, to build the avenues of trust and opportunity that will divert investment from high carbon to low carbon infrastructure.

They will need to negotiate the agreements that will enable us to do that cost-effectively and without divisive market distortions. They will need to design and mobilise coalitions of mutual interest across sectoral and cultural boundaries to transform the way we supply and consume energy, achieve mobility, and use land.

And they will need to do all of this very fast. It is now becoming increasingly clear that it is what we do in the next 15 years that matters most.”