Lack of political will ails climate change effort

[SINGAPORE] Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who has just returned from the United Nations climate change conference in Warsaw, said yesterday that he was pessimistic about prospects for a global agreement that would comprehensively tackle the problem of climate change.

Speaking yesterday at the Responsible Business Forum on Sustainable Development, Dr Balakrishnan noted: "It is very tragic that even after disasters like Super Typhoon Haiyan which affected the Philippines, Micronesia and Vietnam, and even a couple of years after Hurricane Sandy affected the bastion of capitalism, New York - despite these disasters, unfortunately, the political meter has not shifted."

For one, the political will to deal with climate change is lacking, he said.