A low carbon economy

The economic downturn presents us all with enormous economic and social challenges, which extend beyond re-building the global economy, to ensuring that the recovery is sustainable and resilient and places us in the strongest possible position to face a post-downturn world.

That recovery must not undermine our efforts to tackle dangerous climate change: this is the greatest challenge. A high-carbon recovery will be no recovery at all.

Last week, global political and business leaders met in Davos to discuss the economic downturn. The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, called for an internationally-agreed low carbon recovery, reminding us that "If we do not reduce our emissions from their present path - by at least half, globally, by 2050 - we will bring upon ourselves a human and economic catastrophe that will make today's crisis look small".

This speech reminds us that moving to a low-carbon economy is an urgent political imperative. Tackling climate change is not an issue which we can treat as pending; it is an issue which is impacting on us now and will do so increasingly in the future.

The leaders of many countries around the world have already begun to take a low-carbon path. It is in President Barack Obama's Green Jobs package, the European Union's economic recovery plan, the stimulus packages of China, Japan, Australia, France and more (South Korea, Germany, Spain, Demark) and it is in the UK's own forthcoming Low Carbon Industrial Strategy.

Through all these interventions the form of a sustainable, resilient recovery is becoming clear and its shape is low carbon, with an emphasis on major investment in energy efficiency; a fundamental shift towards renewables and nuclear power; a re-engineering of electricity grids to enable dynamic demand and supply; accelerated roll out of low-carbon transport; increased research and development into new energy technologies; and upgraded investment in apprenticeships and science and engineering training programmes to ensure we have the skilled workforce that the low-carbon economy will need.

Putting low carbon at the centre of the recovery will achieve the triple aims of stimulating a quicker and more sustainable economic recovery through providing the critical investment and jobs the world economy needs, improving our energy security by reducing our dependence on oil and tackling climate change by reducing our emissions.

To do this most effectively and have the greatest chance of success, these things must be done in a new partnership between the government and business. This is why, in Davos, the Prime Minister called for a new business-led mission in support of these objectives supported by economic and policy leaders, which will help us design a new global framework that will drive investment in the low-carbon economy and secure jobs and growth for the future.

This business-led task force will release its first report in time for the next meeting of world leaders at the London summit in April. I am confident that, through the collective action of these leaders and of societies across to world, we can address this challenge. Working apart we will surely fail but working together we can, and will, succeed.

Ms Stanton is the British High Commissioner to Malta.