JENNY CLEGG looks ahead at a year where an increasingly multipolar world will challenge US dominance "The founding proclamation of the UN: “We the peoples … determine to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” also reaffirmed faith in fundamental human rights, and committed to establish conditions of respect for international treaties and laws, and to promote social progress and better standards of life.

It is now time to reassert the role of the UN at the centre of world politics by reclaiming the “We the people” declaration from below in a grass-roots movement for international co-operation on climate change alongside the fundamental principles of peace and social justice.