Downing Street Says » Opening remarks at FPA event

A transcript of the Prime Minister s opening remarks during a Q & A event on Britain’s role in the world at the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in London on 19 March 2010.

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Six months ago, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, I described the five great challenges of our time: to cement the global recovery, halt climate change, fight terrorism, reduce nuclear proliferation and turn the tide against poverty.

For the first time in one twelve-month period the world will come together in forums in each and all of these five global challenges.

In fact ten important meetings of the world community could shape what we face in the next ten years; ten moments of opportunity and challenge when the decisions reached by the international community will determine the fortunes of millions and when our commitment and resolve to work together will be tested.

Beginning next month with President Obama’s nuclear security conference and running through to the climate change conference in Mexico in December, Britain wants to see and has proposals for a renewed drive for international co-operation to secure a safer and more prosperous world.

It is right first of all to take stock of our collective effort and the challenges we must now confront.

My conclusion is stark. At the height of the global financial crisis we came together in an unprecedented way to fight back against the global recession. Here in London almost one year ago and then with President Obama in Pittsburgh – we forged the foundations of a global plan to protect jobs and growth, to reform the international financial institutions and to transform banking regulation. There was a new spirit in the international community.

But we must now urgently do more to build upon that brief moment of collective international will. Which is why 2010 must not be a year of drift, dominated by our differences. But one of drive and delivery, dominated, inspired and guided by what unites us. This will require us to summon up new levels of commitment and leadership.

The truth we have learned in the last two years is that global problems cannot be answered by national or even regional solutions alone; global problems need global solutions: because we need more, not less, global co-operation. That is why I am such a committed internationalist, and a passionate European. There are no national solutions to these problems, only international solutions. We must turn outward not inward. So I disagree with those who misguidedly seek an isolationist and anti-European option.

Taking the challenges in turn, on the economy, we came together to deliver the largest macroeconomic stimulus the world has ever seen, with the potential to save or create 19 million jobs last year alone; to agree more than $1 trillion in the resources available through the IFIS and for trade finance to stabilise the global economy; and for the first time, a common approach to cleaning up banks balance sheets and restoring lending. And as a result of decisions we took at the London G20 in April, a more severe global recession was prevented. Now is the time to take the next steps, to complete the task of rebuilding the global economy and strengthening financial supervision in the coming months – at the G20 and G8 summits in Canada and in Korea – and at the Spring and annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, we must now show a fresh collective commitment, to fully implement the G20 framework for strong, balanced and sustainable growth; to co-ordinate more effectively the regulation of our financial systems; and to build a co-ordinated approach to levies on the banks to deliver a fairer balance between risk and reward.

I see signs of progress on a world trade deal and we in Britain are ready to make our contribution to making that elusive deal real.

On climate change, despite the disappointments of the Copenhagen meeting, we have made more progress than is recognised. The Copenhagen Accord has now been supported by over 100 countries. Over 70 countries – covering around 80 per cent of global emissions – have submitted emissions reduction targets and plans. If these commitments are implemented, they will see global emissions peaking at or before 2020. These commitments could therefore hold the global temperature rise to two degrees. Yet at the same time there remains much to do. First, we must implement the Accord. That means fast-start finance for developing countries for the 2010-12 period – to which the British Government has pledged 1.5 million. And we must raise the $100 billion a year agreed as the global financing goal for 2020.

So I want to announce that on 31 March we will hold in London the first meeting of the Climate Finance Group, the advisory group on climate financing established by the UN Secretary General, which I am co-chairing with Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia. We must also re-establish negotiations towards an internationally-binding global agreement, using the important meetings in Germany and Mexico this year to accelerate this goal. Third, we must drive towards creating a low-carbon economy. That is why in the Budget next week we will announce new plans to promote investment in clean energy and in the thousands of new green jobs they will create.

Third, on security, the challenges are changing. Today we face a new kind of terrorism, climate change and potential conflicts over resources, cyber crime, piracy and global increases in illegal migration. We have continued to increase investment in strong borders and counter-terrorism at home – from 1 billion a year on domestic counter-terrorism in 2001 to over 3 billion now. But this must be combined with decisive action to tackle terrorism and extremism abroad, including building up other countries’ capacity to deal with terrorism themselves. Terrorist activity coming out of the Yemen, Somalia and the Sahel has become an increasing problem but because of the scale of the activity planned from this region our priority remains the Afghan-Pakistan border areas. We look forward to the Kabul Conference.

We will gather in Washington next month and in New York the month after to discuss the fourth challenge, that of nuclear security and proliferation. Direct military threats to the UK, both conventional and nuclear, have sharply declined since the end of the Cold War. We cannot yet be confident that such threats will not re-emerge – so it is right that our objective remains multilateral disarmament and that the UK retains a credible and continuous nuclear deterrent. But we must act now, with our global partners, to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons or nuclear material falling into the hands of rogue states or terrorist groups. That is why we join President Obama’s campaign to secure all fissile material across the globe over the next four years.

It is why I can state today that in line with this we will invite the International Atomic Energy Authority to carry out a security inspection at Sellafield and we will make funds available for similar inspections in areas of greatest concern. Today
we also launch our Nuclear Centre of Excellence, through which the UK can lead global efforts to secure the safe global expansion of civil nuclear power.

And we commit to renew the G8 global partnership beyond 2012 with a renewed focus on nuclear and biological security. Countries like Iran, who try secretly to develop nuclear weapons, must face concerted and decisive action by the international community, including more far reaching international sanctions.

Finally, poverty. In New York six months ago, we launched an historic drive to provide free healthcare to the world’s poorest and as a result millions of women and children will receive free healthcare for the first time. And on education too we are succeeding – we have already got 40 million more children into school over the last ten years.

But on all of this, we have so much further to go. And while our determination to meet our aid targets is unshakeable, others, including in the G8, have scaled back their commitments in a way that risks destroying hope for billions. The September Poverty Summit in New York will be the defining moment in achieving the poverty goals we set 10 years ago and we must rise to this challenge.

I do not under-estimate how far we have come as an international community in confronting these five global challenges. But this is not enough. Failure to work more effectively together is not an option. We must better organise ourselves through reforms to the institutions in which we work together, building the clout of the G20, shaking up the IFIS, and making the UN Security Council more representative. But most of all, we must show far greater collective vigour.

Historians may look back at this period as one in which countries briefly set aside their national interests in the common good, before returning to their old ways. Or as I recommended – they will regard this as the period in which we tentatively, gradually if often haltingly but then decisively laid the foundations for sustained global co-operation and the first truly global society. I believe we must make 2010 the first year we can see the strength of global co-operation making that truly global society possible.

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Opening remarks at FPA event

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