Nigel Sheinwald

The Perils of Four Degrees

Today in London, our Secretaries for Foreign Affairs and Climate, David and Ed Miliband, published the latest findings from the UK's foremost climate change science research institution - the Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre. Their conclusions are sobering, and come less than 50 days before the world's governments meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the United Nations climate change negotiations.

The scientists as the Hadley Centre have produced a map detailing the impact across the world of a global temperature rise of 4 degrees centigrade (7 degrees Fahrenheit).   This risk is real.  Respected scientists, using the best available scientific and climate data, are now concluding that, if emissions continue to rise, we could see this kind of dangerous global increase in temperatures within our lifetimes.

The map makes clear that not all countries would be affected in the same way by such a rise. The land will heat up more quickly than the sea, and areas of higher latitude, particularly the Arctic, will have much larger temperature increases. The impacts for the human race are shocking and profound.  The map flags only a small selection of these, but they include severe effects on water availability, food production, and rising sea levels.

The US does not escape these. Tropical storms and hurricanes could become more frequent and intense, putting America's coastal populations at greater risk of disaster.  In the interior, the risks of major forest fires will increase, whilst agricultural production decreases. And major US cities such as New York, Washington DC, and Chicago could experience an increase in their hottest days of the year by as much as 18-22°F, affecting more than 30 million Americans.

This is not apocalyptic scaremongering: these are the best assessments by leading British scientists based on the most recent research.  So we need to listen, and act.

This is no longer just an environmental issue: it's geo-political. Profound changes like these risk creating a more unstable and divided world, with intensified competition for dwindling resources, and all the implications for global security that flow from that.

The British government is committed to avoiding this 4c degree rise. We need to minimise the risks of these catastrophic developments by making sure that we ensure global temperatures don't rise by more than 2c degrees. And that's why an international agreement at Copenhagen this December is so important - for all our future security and prosperity.

Posted at 11:58 22 October 2009 by Nigel Sheinwald  |  Comments[1]

British approach to counter terrorism

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to speak to Columbia University's School of International & Public Affairs about the British response to terrorism. Terrorism is a menace which both the UK and US have suffered from and continue to face. People in New York and my hometown of London - as well as many other cities around the world - know this threat well and have experienced terrible loss and tragedy as a result of attacks in recent years.

Attacks in the US, the UK and many other countries across Africa, Europe and Asia have at their root a misguided and extreme interpretation of Islam. In the UK, threats have often come from people who have been brought up in our communities, while in the US, terrorism has been largely an external threat. So although our approaches have involved very substantial co-operation between our law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, we have different areas of emphasis.

In the UK, we have directed a tremendous amount of resources to the pursuit and disruption of terrorist activity. By 2011, the amount of money being invested in this area will have doubled since 2001. This has allowed us to increase the size of the Security Service and the number of police involved in countering violent extremism. As a result, we are regionalising our counter-terrorism effort in a way we never have before with four regional counter-terrorism policing hubs in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, with a fifth on the way. These units extend our reach and effectiveness in tackling terrorism.

We have convicted more individuals for terrorist offences. Since the beginning of last year, 81 people have been found guilty as a result of 23 operations. Part of this success is due to the strengthening of our counter-terrorism legislation, for example by widening the range of offences.

We work closely with Muslim communities in the UK, the vast majority of whom share our determination to tackle the extremists and their message. It's important to those communities, and to us, that we define the extremists not by their religion, but by their readiness to commit criminal acts of terrible violence. This is what makes them unacceptable in our society, and why there is broad cross-community condemnation of them and their methods.

It is clear that no country can counter these threats alone. The US is Britain's closest partner in the fight against international terrorism. This is perhaps most obvious in Afghanistan where UK and US troops are engaged in the difficult but vital mission of building a secure and stable country that can no longer harbour terrorists or be used as a base from which to plan and launch attacks on our countries. But in so many other parts of the world the close co-operation and sharing of intelligence, expertise, and technical capabilities between the UK and US makes our efforts to combat terrorism much stronger and more effective. Co-ordinating this joint approach is a priority for the British Embassy. It is essential for both our countries' security that our co-operation should continue and grow.

Posted at 09:21 31 October 2008 by Nigel Sheinwald  |  Comments[3]