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With the Commonwealth heads-of-government meeting in Port of Spain three weeks away, the debate continues about whether the Commonwealth has a future. At 60 years old, there are some who take the view that it is irrelevant – or, worse, drawing its last breath.

It is absolutely right that we should debate the Commonwealth's future. But as someone who has spent my political life working to promote democratic freedoms, human rights and poverty eradication, I know where I stand: I believe the association will not only survive but has to thrive for the next 60 years and beyond. It is worth recalling that the United Kingdom and Canada remain the largest contributors to the Commonwealth Secretariat; Canada alone contributes nearly one-fifth of the Commonwealth's budget.

When the modern Commonwealth was born, the defining feature of international relations was the end of empire and the emergence of a post-colonial age. Sixty years on, the world has changed. Imperial ties, and imperial rivalries, have been replaced by unprecedented global trade, travel and communications that bind the world's peoples ever more closely together.

But the development of international institutions has not kept place. It is clear that nation-states on their own are powerless to act in the face of global environmental or developmental challenges. It is not yet clear that international institutions have the credibility or impact necessary to address the world's shared challenges.

The Commonwealth is different. In an era when problems are global but solutions are too often instinctively national, it has a unique role to play in bridging the gap. It has a legacy of achievements on political, diplomatic and economic issues and a power to act on the issues that remain politically contentious and divisive in today's world.

Where other international institutions struggle to identify a sense of common purpose, each and every Commonwealth member has made a commitment to freedom and democracy, to the eradication of poverty and inequality, and to peace, the rule of law and opportunity for all. This is all the more powerful a commitment given the diversity of our population, which includes 800 million Hindus, 500 million Muslims and 400 million Christians.

Where other international institutions struggle to deliver on their promises, the Commonwealth has consistently put its principles into practice.

In the struggle against apartheid, the Commonwealth made its name as a leader on promoting democratic freedom, and its efforts continue. Commonwealth observer missions have deployed in more than 20 countries in the past three years alone. Commonwealth associations work to promote freedom of the media and civil society. And we have censured members who do not uphold our principles.

It was the association's first secretary-general, Arnold Smith, who set up the first mutual assistance programs. Today, development organizations such as the Commonwealth Local Government Forum work to lift our most vulnerable people out of poverty. Initiatives such as the Commonwealth of Learning, run from Vancouver, have played a leading role in ensuring that Commonwealth citizens get the education and employment opportunities they deserve – and I know that Canada has been particularly active in promoting these kinds of opportunities.

Intra-Commonwealth trade flows, which have expanded from $2-trillion to $3-trillion a year in the past decade, and intra-Commonwealth investment flows, which stand at more than $160-billion, are also helping Commonwealth countries grow their way out of the recession. As a member of the European Parliament, I regularly attended World Trade Organization meetings where Director-General Pascal Lamy praised the Commonwealth Business Council for being “tremendously useful in framing issues – developing understanding and confidence and breaking down ignorance and suspicion.”

I can't deny there are challenges ahead. At this month's Commonwealth meeting, we will need to agree on a number of concrete steps to ensure that we can continue to act boldly and effectively – including by modernizing the Commonwealth Secretariat.

More urgently, we will need to prove that, as world leaders gather in Copenhagen in the week after the Commonwealth summit, we take seriously the single most important global issue today: climate change.

The reasons to act are self-evident: The two billion people living in the Commonwealth are among the world's most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. An increase beyond three degrees of the global average temperature could see countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania suffer a drop of more than 20 per cent in some crop yields, while rice yield in India and Bangladesh could fall by as much as one-third. Some of our small island member states, where villages have already had to be moved inland, could see large swaths of land disappear altogether.

And as they see our member states' vulnerability, the United States and the European Union will be among those that, at Copenhagen, expect to see a tough message from the Commonwealth on what needs to be done – on financing, mitigation and adaptation. As individual members, a pan-Commonwealth approach will be the best way to get our voices heard.

But I hope that Copenhagen will be just the start of the Commonwealth's assuming a greater global role. Across the range of global challenges, from climate change to poverty reduction or meeting food and fuel needs, the Commonwealth will need to cross-cut global divides to be a more effective networker and lobbyist.

With four G8 + 5 members, five G20 members, more than half of the G77's members, 12 Organization of the Islamic Conference members, almost 50 African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and 18 African Union members, there is no single organization better placed to do this. And as G8 president in 2010 and potentially a UN Security Council member in 2011, Canada is well placed to take a lead role. As former Commonwealth secretary-general Sir Shridath Ramphal says, “the Commonwealth can't negotiate for the world, but it can help the world to negotiate.”

And if and when it does, there will be few who doubt that the Commonwealth is not only fit for purpose but indispensable for the next 60 years and beyond.

Glenys Kinnock is Britain's Minister of State with responsibility for Africa, the United Nations, human rights, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean and Central America, and climate change.