When thinking about the future, it is fashionable to be pessimistic. Yet the evidence unequivocally belies such pessimism. Over the past centuries, humanity's lot has improved dramatically - in the developed world, where it is rather obvious, but also in the developing world, where life expectancy has more than doubled in the past 100 years.

The second thing is, if you want to do something about global warming, you have to think much more long-term. There is something wrong with saying we should start using renewables now, while they are still incredibly expensive.

Global warming is real - it is man-made and it is an important problem. But it is not the end of the world.

I really try to say things as they basically are and it so happens that it is a good message that things are getting better, but there are still problems.

For the longest time in Denmark I didn't want to say what I was politically. I thought it was irrelevant.

The Kyoto treaty has an estimated cost of between US$150 and $350 billion a year, starting in 2010.

So it's mainly a question of helping the Third World overcome the effects of global warming.