UN appoints UAE FM Abdullah to climate role

New York - The United Nations has appointed Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to a 21-member panel tasked with finding ways to tackle climate change while allowing the world’s economies to grow. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the body would devise a “blueprint for a new liveable, prosperous and sustainable future for all” by addressing the global threats of poverty, security and shortages of food, water and energy.

“The panel will address the question of how to lift people out of poverty while respecting and preserving the climate and natural systems that sustain us,” Mr Ban told journalists at UN headquarters yesterday.

“I have asked the panel to think big. The time for narrow agendas and narrow thinking is over. We need to promote low-carbon growth and strengthen our resilience to the impacts of climate change.”

The body will be co-chaired by the presidents of South Africa and Finland, Jacob Zuma and Tarja Halonen, and publish a report in December next year, ahead of a 2012 UN conference on sustainable development in Brazil. The group consists of politicians, civil servants and businessmen, including Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, and James Balsillie, the co-chief executive of Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry devices. – The National