13 May 2009: The new Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Helen Clark, recently met the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn.

They discussed development priorities, including the new deal for environment, concrete options for reducing carbon footprints and their link with poverty reduction strategies. They stressed the need to ensure that the poor have access to clean alternative energy sources, and that developing countries are effectively included in the final outcome of the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen, in December 2009. [UNDP press release]