However, you cannot continue growing the front rank of the wealthy nations with such uncertainty.
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It's not just small towns, although in wealthy nations, small communities may face the most extreme effects.
Finally, those same wealthy nations are the ones issuing the most demands about how the process should work.
For the UK and other wealthy nations, shale gas cannot be a transition fuel to a low-carbon future.
Left behind, so far, is Africa, still struggling through its post-colonial period, shamefully neglected by the wealthy nations of the world.
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But South Africa Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told the BBC's Talking Point programme what was needed was one approach, with all wealthy nations on board.
Wealthy nations are busy debasing their currency in an attempt to lower debt service costs and make their products more attractive on the world market.
By pursuing these nontraditional fuels, the oil companies are committing themselves ever more deeply to the wealthy nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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Some years back, the U.N. welcomed the new millennium with a proposal that wealthy nations start turning over 0.7% of their gross national product for aid to the developing world.
If other countries can simply take intellectual creations without paying for them, then wealthy nations have much less to gain from a free trade agreement and the entire world innovation system suffers.
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In contrast, supply-side practices have become more efficient in wealthy industrialized nations, according to Sonesson, but consumers have become much less diligent: "We throw away more food than ever before, " he said.
And the price that will surely be extracted by Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Muslim nations from whom NASA will be seeking "contributions" will be access to know-how and possibly space-launch-related production capabilities currently deemed too sensitive to transfer.
Wealthy and poorer nations are likely to argue over sharing the burden of cutting carbon emissions.
In the US, France and Japan - all wealthy, developed nations - the state of the world economy emerged as the main talking point.
Instead of relying only on profits generated by wealthy consumers in developed nations, truly innovative companies are inventing new wealth and fostering human potential in rapidly growing emerging markets.
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The summit is expected to call for the establishment of a global food fund and see pledges of food aid from wealthy countries to poor nations to ward off food shortages.
Combining foundations of the wealthy with governments of emerging nations is another theme.
While popular with the elite set that also has a large presence in the IOC, it isn't widely played in poorer nations or most wealthy ones either.
The prime minister urged the wealthy oil-producing Gulf nations to invest more in areas such as carbon capture and storage, as a way of diversifying beyond oil.
Germany shows more stability compared to other rich nations: Only 17 percent of wealthy German consumers say that they are spending less on luxury now and 29 percent plan to trim luxuries in the coming year.
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