Finnish President Tarja Halonen was today awarded the Sustainable Development Leadership award for confronting climate change and leading her government to take the issue as a primary focus. The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who presented the award by the Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) to Halonen at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, hailed her role as co-chair of the UN High Level Panel on Global Sustainability.

Receiving the award, the visiting President said it was a great honour for her and her country and emphasised the need of preserving the Global Commons.