MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brown and Bachelet call for a “new progressive agenda”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chilean president Michelle Bachelet underlined on Friday the urgent need for “a new progressive agenda” to tackle global issues such as climate change, globalization, poverty and inequality in the developing world.

Visiting President Bachelet was one of several centre left government leaders from around the world attending the high level Progressive Governance Conference in Watford which is being hosted by PM Brown as leader of the Labor Party and was opened this Friday. The new agenda must be "global" to combat "problems threatening the planet" said Bachelet at the two day conference. "It's just scary to think that Antarctic is melting", said Bachelet who has traveled on several occasions to Antarctica. PM Brown said the new international agenda must not only address current issues such as climate change, terrorism, the financial crisis, but must also include "multilateral mechanisms". Among these mechanisms he mentioned the creation of a "World Bank for the environment?just as we have a World Bank to promote development", as well as "global carbon market" to combat and diminish gases that generate the greenhouse effect. He also proposed reforming international institutions and making them more inclusive. "As it was necessary at the end of World War II to create international organizations, the time has come to review and reform then" said Brown since the world now faces other formidable challenges such as massive migrations and international terrorism. "The global institutions we have cannot meet the challenge of our times; they must be reshaped in line with progressive values". "Achieving an inclusive globalization, one that can combine economic dynamism with social justice in a sustainable way for all, is the key political challenge facing this generation of leaders and politicians". Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd summed up the spirit of the progressive governance meeting saying that "billions of people in the world depend on the success of the project we are defending". "We're a movement of very stubborn people with soft hearts", said PM Rudd. Mr Brown shared a platform with Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia; President Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Also attending former US president Bill Clinton ; Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa; Alfred Gusenbauer, the Austrian Chancellor; Dimitris Christofias, President of Cyprus; John Kufuor, President of Ghana; Romano Prodi, the Italian Prime Minister; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia; Gediminas Kirkilas, Prime Minister of Lithuania; Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway and Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia. They were joined by 300 international opinion-formers, policymakers, government advisers and experts. Peter Mandelson, the European Trade Commissioner, said the public was sceptical about globalization, even though its benefits were clear. "This general atmosphere is compounded by a financial markets crisis, a probable recession in the US and the unpleasant spectacle of some in our societies enjoying large pay-offs for failure while others can't make the payments on their homes. That makes an intelligent assessment of the conditions for successful globalization vital. But this is also the moment when politics risks shrugging off such an effort in favor of populism, protectionism, isolationism." The conference is organised by the Policy Network, which describes itself as "an international think-tank dedicated to promoting progressive policies and the renewal of social democracy." The idea for the summit was launched by Clinton in 1999, when he was still in office.