He and Independent Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman had worked hard to push a global climate crisis-premised 2010 carbon cap-and-trade bill, only to see its prospects for passage swept away in a Republican House cleaning.

FORBES: Election Campaigns Prove Global Warming Crisis Skeptics Won The Climate Debate

It has taken world problems such as food, the failure of World Trade Organization members to reach a global trade agreement, climate change and a financial crisis in 2008, to take this event out of the jamboree category and transform it into a preeminent event for all politicians, CEOs, finance directors and economists to be supportive of.

CNN: It takes a crisis to focus on the value of Davos

The global recession, the energy crisis, food insecurity, climate change -- all these have made development more difficult, yet more urgent.

UN: Secretary-General

The International Development Committee (at 9.30am) ponders the threat of a global food security crisis caused by rising demand, growing populations, climate change and environmental problems. witnesses include NGOs, food policy experts and economists.

BBC: Week ahead in committees

Yet global warming observed less than two decades after many scientists had predicted a global cooling crisis prompted the United Nations to organize an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and to convene a continuing series of international conferences purportedly aimed at preventing an impending catastrophe.

FORBES: In Their Own Words: Climate Alarmists Debunk Their 'Science'