Attention to Change

Former prime minister Helen Clark, now head of the United Nation’s Development Agency, was recently at Sydney’s Lowy Institute calling for climate change to be put at the centre of international development strategies. In her speech, Clark set out a four-point strategy for moving the development agenda forward. She called for a renewed focus on meeting goals for the future and for climate change to be placed at the centre of development thinking and strategies. There should be particular attention to vulnerable groups. “For a number of Pacific Island nations and communities, climate change is not just an abstract issue, not just an environmental or an economic issue,” Clark said. “It is about their very survival.” Clark was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand, for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008 and led the Labour Party from 1993 until it lost the 2008 general election.