“Development assistance plays a key role in the area of energy and climate, but it cannot take on the financial, technical and political challenges alone,” says Ms Carlsson, who is speaking as a representative of the EU at the meetings in New York.

“We must look at it in connection with trade policy, security policy and, of course, climate and environmental policy as well. New types of challenges necessitate cross-border efforts and require us to organise ourselves so that we learn how to manage these crises.

Because it is a matter of crises, plural: the economic and financial crisis, the food crisis and perhaps, in the future, a population growth crisis. Poor people have the greatest difficulty adapting because they are hit hardest by the changes.

This is why it is important to improve people’s basic conditions,” Ms Carlsson explains.
“It is a matter of ensuring that poor people receive an education, enjoy good health, are able to organise and make their voices heard, and that there are functioning markets and functioning institutions.”

During her week in New York, the Minister for International Development Cooperation has held a large number of bilateral talks. She has also met members of civil society organisations to discuss matters such as the problem of the vulnerability of the poorest countries and how work is carried out on such issues. Ms Carlsson led the International Commission on Climate Change and Development, and says that it is important that the Commission’s work, the main task of which was to produce proposals concerning how to strengthen the adaptation capacity of poor countries, is taken forward.

“We must now ensure that this becomes policy in both Sweden and Europe, and that it fits in well with the meeting in Copenhagen,” says Ms Carlsson.