A large part of the world’s fate could be settled right here in Port of Spain in the next few days.

Last night while giving his official opening address at the Commonwealth People’s Forum at the Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain, Prime Minister Patrick Manning attested to the colossal challenge he will be taking on as chairman of this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port of Spain.

CHOGM will be the last opportunity for some of the world’s biggest players to thrash it out before the United Nations-sanctioned global climate change talks begins in Denmark on December 7.

During his speech Manning addressed the now much debated topic of climate change and said: ’Our meeting in a few days is the last major gathering of world leaders before the meeting in Copenhagen, about which there is some pessimism regarding any significant result.’

He was referring to the fact that scientists say current greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by some 80 per cent if the world is not to overheat.

Manning said: ’As chair of this CHOGM, Trinidad and Tobago is working assiduously with other nations, in and out of the Commonwealth, to attain a position that is strong enough to advance the process toward a global agreement on this critical matter affecting all of humanity.’

He said the meeting, which will also include French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the host of the Copenhagen climate summit himself, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen comes at a pivotal time in the world’s history, when decisions are not only shaped by the need to stymie climate change but when it is still reeling from the effects of an economic crisis which almost took the world to the ’precipice of financial ruin’.

Manning said: ’The fact that the UN Secretary General (Ban Ki Moon) ...will join us in our deliberations on this issue is an indication of the intensity of our (the Commonwealth’s) efforts.’