Just Globalisation
We know the problems. A child in Africa dies every three seconds from famine, disease or conflict. We know that if climate change is not stopped, all parts of the world will suffer. Some will even be destroyed. And we know the solution - sustainable development. So the issue is political will.
We know one other thing. The key characteristic of today's world is its interdependence. Your problem becomes my problem. One country's war becomes another country's asylum seekers. One country's pollution becomes another country's floods.
We have begun to act.
A decade on from Rio those who took part then can point to real progress - millions more children educated, millions more with safe drinking water, millions lifted out of poverty. Rio of course did not deliver everything, neither will Johannesburg - no summit can - but this summit can and will make our world change for the better
Development for the UK Government is a priority. Africa for me is a passion: proud of our leadership on debt relief, we know there is more to do; proud of the extra resources we are giving to aid and development, we want to give more in the future and we will; proud that we will meet, indeed exceed, our Kyoto targets, we know we must do more.
We must open up our world trade and that must include the developed world opening up its markets to the products of the developing world, especially for agriculture.
