Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Institutional Relations and Communication

With one eye on the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen in December, the European Development Days 2009 are a chance for us to demonstrate commitment to the challenges ahead: we have the common responsibility to prepare the global response to the economic crisis and climate change, as well as to lay the foundations for democracy and development. That's why I believe that we also have to use this forum to draw attention to a dimension of climate change which is often overlooked in the discussions on how to deal fairly with the effects of climate change: the fact that climate change increases social inequalities.

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Images of the Beijing sky-line, seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been never far from the world's TV screens over recent days and weeks.

International reporters with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking the levels of soot and dust.

Everyone seems keen to prove that the city's air will be a decisive and debilitating factor for one of the world's most high profile sporting events.

Without doubt Beijing is facing a huge challenge. There are real and understandable concerns for the health of competitors, especially those in endurance and long distance events such as cycling and the marathon.

But the current frenzied focus is marked by a modicum of amnesia-air pollution was a major concern in Los Angeles 24 years ago.

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I come back from Kenya. AFD and other donors including the World Bank and EIB are financing a large-scale public geothermal investment program that will supply most of Kenya's future power generating capacity. The power generation mix that will fuel Kenya's rapidly growing economy over the next decade will be carbon-poor.

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