UN General Assembly
2009

his leadership on this important and challenging issue of our time. The event will go a long way towards paving the way for a comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. It was heart-warming indeed to hear President Barack Obama assure this world body that the United States will join other nations in the joint endeavour to save our common planet. We are also happy that, under the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, consensus has been emerging on making additional resources available to assist developing nations in their efforts at adaptation, mitigation and the pursuit of clean development. Allow me now to talk about three side events that have taken place during this session of the General Assembly. The first one was the panel discussion on accelerating the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which was organized by Ms. Helen Clark, the new Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, together with Mr. Douglas Alexander, the United Kingdom’s Secretary for International Development. At that meeting, important impressions were made about successes and