Beckett tells U.S. industry to invest in "clean-tech"

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - On the eve of the first U.N. Security Council debate on global warming, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett warned U.S. businesses to invest in carbon-free technology or lose out to Europeans.

"Clean-tech is going to be a massive market" and the largest economic opportunity of the century, Beckett said in a speech on Monday to the BritishAmerican Business Inc. group in New York.

"Those who move into that market first -- first to design, first to patent, first to set the technology standard, first to sell, first to invest, first to build a brand -- have an unparalleled chance to make money," Beckett said.

Calling the European Union the biggest single market on the planet, Beckett said the EU aimed to become the "first competitive, low-carbon, energy secure economy in the world."

"We are doing it because we believe that it is in our core economic interest: it represents a political consensus that Europe can only and will only compete successfully in the global economy if we increase our energy security and if we lead the global transition to a low-carbon economy."

Beckett, whose country holds the current Security Council presidency, chairs a meeting on Tuesday that Britain called to convince reluctant members that climate changes poses a threat to international security.

"The implications of climate change for our security are more fundamental and more comprehensive than any single conflict," she said.

"The resources available to us are already stretched and they're under immense and growing strain. An unstable climate threatens to exacerbate all of these existing tensions," Beckett told the business group in a preview of her argument to the Security Council.