Blair fears climate change disaster, challenges the US

LONDON – Britain’s Tony Blair pledged on Tuesday to force international action on global warming, despite the reluctance of big powers like the United States.

Blair promised to make the issue a centrepiece of Britain’s presidency of the G8 industrialised countries in 2005 and laid out a three-point international strategy to tackle a phenomenon he said could become “irreversible in its destructive power”. Blair pointed to violent weather conditions across the globe this year and said the richest countries created most of the problem while the poorest bore the brunt.”It is the poorest countries in the world that will suffer most… yet it is they who have contributed least to the problem,” Blair said in a speech to experts in London.”That is why the world’s richest nations in the G8 have a responsibility to lead the way.”Bush dismayed many allies in 2001 by pulling the United States out of the UN’s Kyoto protocol, the main international pact meant to cap emissions of greenhouse gases.America is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.Blair said Kyoto was only a first step but noted that the last time the US Senate voted on the issue, it was unanimously against it.”I doubt time has shifted the numbers very radically,” he admitted.Opposition Conservative leader Michael Howard stirred the pot on Monday, saying Blair’s inability to make Washington shift on climate change demonstrated his impotence with Bush.”It is very disappointing that Tony Blair has not succeeded in persuading the present administration that the challenge of global warming is one that cannot be shirked,” he said.Blair spelled out three aims for 2005:* to reach agreement among the G8 on what causes climate change and the threat it poses * to agree on scientific and technological measures to tackle it * to persuade countries beyond the G8, notably China and India, to act to cut greenhouse gases”Such agreement will be a major advance but I believe it is achievable,” he said.”If there were even a 50 per cent chance that the scientific evidence is right, the bias in favour of action would be clear,” Blair said.”But of course it is far more than 50 percent.”At home, Blair’s Labour government has committed Britain to green technology and more efficient use of energy to achieve a 60 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.Environmental pressure groups said they welcomed his intervention, although some critics said they had heard the prime minister talk passionately about climate change before, only to see little follow-up action.”Global warming dwarfs all other threats to the security of humankind.The prime minister has sounded the alarm,” said Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth.”There is still time to make the changes necessary to avert the worst catastrophes that could accompany rapid climate change but there is no room for delay.”- Nampa-ReutersBlair pointed to violent weather conditions across the globe this year and said the richest countries created most of the problem while the poorest bore the brunt.”It is the poorest countries in the world that will suffer most… yet it is they who have contributed least to the problem,” Blair said in a speech to experts in London.”That is why the world’s richest nations in the G8 have a responsibility to lead the way.”Bush dismayed many allies in 2001 by pulling the United States out of the UN’s Kyoto protocol, the main international pact meant to cap emissions of greenhouse gases.America is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.Blair said Kyoto was only a first step but noted that the last time the US Senate voted on the issue, it was unanimously against it.”I doubt time has shifted the numbers very radically,” he admitted.Opposition Conservative leader Michael Howard stirred the pot on Monday, saying Blair’s inability to make Washington shift on climate change demonstrated his impotence with Bush.”It is very disappointing that Tony Blair has not succeeded in persuading the present administration that the challenge of global warming is one that cannot be shirked,” he said.Blair spelled out three aims for 2005:* to reach agreement among the G8 on what causes climate change and the threat it poses * to agree on scientific and technological measures to tackle it * to persuade countries beyond the G8, notably China and India, to act to cut greenhouse gases”Such agreement will be a major advance but I believe it is achievable,” he said.”If there were even a 50 per cent chance that the scientific evidence is right, the bias in favour of action would be clear,” Blair said.”But of course it is far more than 50 percent.”At home, Blair’s Labour government has committed Britain to green technology and more efficient use of energy to achieve a 60 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.Environmental pressure groups said they welcomed his intervention, although some critics said they had heard the prime minister talk passionately about climate change before, only to see little follow-up action.”Global warming dwarfs all other threats to the security of humankind.The prime minister has sounded the alarm,” said Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth.”There is still time to make the changes necessary to avert the worst catastrophes that could accompany rapid climate change but there is no room for delay.”- Nampa-Reuters