Climate change is the greatest challenge facing the world today. If we continue on the path of high carbon economic development, the rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather. The effects will be felt in all parts of the world; internationally there will be severe problems for people in regions that are particularly vulnerable.

And time is running out fast to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. The global community urgently needs to move to low carbon economic development and to reach agreement on a new international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Failure to do so will undermine our future security and prosperity.

Understanding the urgent need to act now, the UK has become a global leader in the fight against climate change. We are working through the European Union, G8 and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (link: www.unfccc.org ) processes to find ways to reach global agreement on action to avert dangerous climate change. To get more information on what the UK is doing internationally to tackle climate change please visit: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/change_energy/change_energy.aspx

The UK also co-operates with Russia in a broad range of areas around climate change and related energy issues. We support a number of projects in Russia, working with Russian colleagues to understand climate change and its implications better, on mitigation and adaptation, on Kyoto implementation and on energy efficiency. To learn more about projects we are funding, please visit Embassy project activity page at: http://ukinrussia.fco.gov.uk/en/working-with-russia/embassy-project-activities