Just one week before the Copenhagen climate change conference begins, the Dalai Lama is asking the world’s governments to downplay their national economic interests and give priority to solving global climate change. At a news conference in Australia, he said:

Sometimes their number one importance is national interest, national economic interest, then global (warming) issue is sometimes second. That I think should change. The global issue, it should be number one.

The conference is Dec. 7-18.