Geoworld Spotlight

A dilemma is looming for Governments with respect to their responsibilities towards the two greatest challenges for global society, climate change and poverty. The recent IPCC reports have highlighted the need to reduce carbon emissions, and Governments have turned their attention to the transport sector. However, any attempt to tax or reduce transport use is likely to have serious repercussions on international development and poverty alleviation strategies. Dr Terence Dawson and Dr Simon Allen, members of the Centre for Environmental Change and Sustainability, has raised this issue in a recent correspondence to Nature (Dawson, TP and Allen S, Poverty reduction must not exacerbate climate change, Nature 446, 372, 22 March 2007), which for subscribers, has been published online.

• Terence P. Dawson, Simon J. Allen - Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and Sustainability, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JN, Scotland, UK