United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a "green new deal" on climate change ahead of a summit meeting to be held in Copenhagen in December.
He told an audience at Johns Hopkins University in Washington on Thursday that he plans to go to the North Pole before the year is out, as well as to regions where there is drought and competition for water.
The UN wants an agreement on a new climate treaty to be reached in Copenhagen. It would succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.