‘Restoring Trust in Our Shared Future’

I am honoured to join you at the University’s centenary celebrations.

You have, of course, a great deal to celebrate. It has been a century of remarkable growth for this University in terms of its size and reputation.

The high standard of research and international partnerships you have forged underline the central role the university is playing in finding creative solutions to the challenges our world faces.

And in setting the scene for the Q&A session, I would like to make some brief remarks about one of these pressing challenges.

It is how we can together restore confidence in our shared future: confidence between people and leaders, in our institutions, and between countries.

Unless we urgently begin to rebuild this trust and focus, I fear it will prove impossible to tackle the challenges we face.

Without agreement on our common  purpose and shared values; and without  the mutual confidence to put in place the right policies to deliver them, we will not be able properly to repair and rebalance the global economy

Nor will we find the vision and courage needed to take the hard decisions necessary to combat climate change.

For no country, no matter how powerful or wealthy, can hope to tackle such challenges on its own.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our fate and fortunes have never been more closely linked, creating new opportunities but also new threats and challenges.

Global challenges are being met with stubbornly national approaches, and decisions on long-term threats influenced by short-term interests or the electoral cycle.

The tumultuous events of this year show that we do not have the policy framework, institutions of governance and finance, or the leadership to manage this new world for the benefit of all.

I don’t need to tell an Icelandic audience of the dangers we face if we don’t correct these imbalances, and put transparency, accountability and fairness at the heart of decision-making.

The global financial crisis hit Iceland before many other countries.

You learnt firsthand the destruction that reckless individuals and unregulated and uncontrolled financial flows can cause.

We have now seen the impact of these misjudgments and failures across the world.

Individual greed and risk-taking which brought first our banks and then economies to their knees.

Governments and regulators ducked their responsibility to understand the risks being taken and to protect their citizens against them.

The result is the severest global economic and social crisis for decades.

Billions of people, who played no part in these mistakes, are suffering in lost jobs, squeezed incomes and poorer quality of life.

The major countries responsible for the imbalances in the global economy seem unable to look beyond their national self-interest and act collectively to promote balanced and sustainable growth.

And at the national level, governments are struggling to get the balance right between policies to reduce debt and those to promote growth, support small businesses, create jobs, and protect the vulnerable.

But the steps being taken to dramatically reduce deficits are proving a further brake on recovery and are widening the gap between rich and poor even more.

The ILO has recently warned that austerity measures could cost 40 million jobs across the world next year. In human terms, this means hardship and insecurity for the lives and prospects of 40 million families.

It also means that young people, who experience unemployment levels up to 7 times higher of adults, will continue to suffer from lack of opportunity and will be unable to make a meaningful contribution to society.

We have seen their discontent in Spain, Greece, and very recently, in New York, but it is not just the developed world which is suffering.

One in four developing countries is seeing an excessive contraction of their economies.

There is a real danger that much of the progress towards the Millennium Development Goals will be rolled back.

The number of chronically under-nourished people instead of falling is heading back above one billion – or one in seven of the people on our planet.

So it is no surprise that citizens across the world are angry, and their trust in their leaders and institutions is so badly shaken.

They believe that while Governments may have decided that the banks are “too big to fail”, they dismiss their citizens as “too small to matter”.

They see austerity packages imposed which leave the wealthy largely untouched but chip away at the protections of the rest of the population.

Within Europe, they watch in despair the political failure to tackle the Eurozone crisis, though this paralysis risks tipping the world economy back into recession.

With increasing urgency, ordinary people are insisting that leaders develop fair and effective policies which meet their needs and aspirations, and do not punish the poor.

They are demanding to be given a real voice and the chance to hold their leaders accountable for delivering on their promises.

If we are to succeed in creating a fair world, we need to reform our multilateral institutions, and make them more effective, transparent and inclusive.

This is perhaps one of the most difficult political challenges we face, but decision making can no longer simply reflect the views of the wealthy and privileged.

So how do we reframe our efforts to meet this challenge? And how can we restore trust and legitimacy in our institutions?

First, we must put the values of solidarity, prudence, public spiritedness and fairness at the heart of all we do.

Policies that drive the global economy must reduce the gap between rich and poor within – and between – countries.

We have to be ready to make existing global rules fairer and to draw up and enforce regulations where there are none.

And we need to place a premium on democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, and not focus solely on economic growth and stability.

Above all, there must be recognition that in our inter-connected world, we succeed or fail together.

Leaders and countries have so far struggled to embrace this new reality- it has led to competition, greater intolerance and insecurity.

And the increasing discontent with political systems and standards of governance is not restricted to the dictatorships of North Africa and the Middle East alone.

Governance in stable democracies also has weaknesses. We are seeing falls in voter turn-out together with an increase in support for divisive fringe groups.

This apathy makes it easier for single issue and special interest groups to capture the political process, which only further reduces public trust in Governments.

Unless we rebuild trust, this gap between leaders and people will widen and the risk of widespread social unrest will increase.

Sadly, we are seeing the same failure of individual and institutional leadership and disconnection between citizens and their leaders over climate change.

Again, as this country knows, climate change is not a future or abstract challenge.

It is an all-encompassing threat to security, health, economic and social stability, and to life itself.

Rising temperatures and the more frequent extreme weather events are already making conflict, famine, disease and poverty worse.

Our efforts to combat conflict, famine, disease and poverty are already being impact by rising temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events.

No country will escape its impact.  As with the economic crisis, no country can overcome it alone.

Yet we have still not found the vision or courage to act on our common but differentiated responsibilities to tackle this catastrophic threat to future generations and our planet.

In light of this failure, the forthcoming Durban conference becomes a crucial test for our leaders to look beyond narrow national and short-term interests.

We need to find a way to make progress on a fair agreement to cut emissions.

There must be a far greater focus, too, on developing innovative sources of financing and transferring knowledge and technology to help countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Iceland- with this university in the lead – is already playing an important role by sharing expertise and developing technologies on sustainable sources of energy.

I want to commend you for all you are doing but also to reinforce the importance of you stepping up these efforts and forging new international partnerships particularly with developing countries.

For the role of universities and researchers, along with the private sector, is key to building a low carbon future.

You have a role, too, in addressing perhaps the most fundamental challenge which underlies both the economic crisis and the climate challenge.

This challenge is to transform our use of the world’s finite resources and put an end to unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.

To develop ‘green economies’ that are based on human well being and environmental security, and capable of supporting sustainable economic growth and development.

Ladies and gentlemen, I do not under-estimate the scope of these challenges or the difficulties ahead.

But I remain confident that we will discover the common purpose needed to restore trust in our shared future.

And the main reason for this optimism is all around us today at this university.

For the young people studying here belong to the first generation who can genuinely call themselves citizens of the world.
Whether in Reykjavik or in Ghana, from where I have just returned, young people understand that we share this world.

And while the current generation of leaders may be failing to live up to the challenge, we are already seeing the young – whether in the pro-democracy campaigns in North Africa or the global fight against poverty  – step up to the mark.

So if I may address my closing remarks directly to them: there can be no question as to the necessity or value of the courage and creativity of youth.

And the impact of the decisions taken or shirked now will affect you more than anyone else.

So it is up to you to find the resolve to engage in the world, and to change it for the better.

I, for one, have confidence that you are up to the task.

Thank you.