The next six months will test international cooperation more severely than at any time since 1945. That may seem strange to say after a year of global crisis that has demanded unity on an immense scale, yet five urgent challenges confront us and we cannot delay our responses.
Crucial meetings this week in New York and Pittsburgh will determine by next spring whether a new era of collaboration is possible.
We cannot solve these problems immediately, of course, but momentous decisions are demanded now toward halting climate change, renewing economic prosperity, fighting terrorism, ending nuclear proliferation and overcoming poverty.
This week starts with efforts to reinvigorate talks to secure a new international agreement on climate change in Copenhagen this December. Progress is too slow and a deal now hangs in the balance. But failure will increase the threat not only of humanitarian and ecological catastrophe but also of economic decline.
Investment in energy efficiency and low-carbon energy sources will help drive economic growth over the next decade — as well as reduce dependence on imported oil and enhance energy security. Millions of jobs stand to be created as this investment expands — the low-carbon sector is now larger than defense and aerospace combined. But it is vital that we give confidence to such investment through a new international climate agreement.
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