Blair's Aggressive Stance on Climate Might Help Break International Impasse

One possible eacrly consequence of the successful conclusion of the US-UK war to topple the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq could be to nudge climate change and renewable energy back onto the international agenda. British Prime Minister Blair who staked his political career on aggressive action to address the former Iraqi regime has been the most outspoken of the G-8 leaders on climate protection and renewables development. If the Bush administration believes in genuine reciprocity with allies that have stood by it despite huge constituency pressures at home, Blair should have real political chits to collect.

Over the last couple of years the British Prime Minister has been speaking out forcefully on climate change.  In speech after speech he acknowledges the challenge of climate change as one of the greatest of our time and challenges the US to join him in the quest for concrete steps to combat this emerging global threat.  He has emphasized the crucial role that science has played in getting us to this point in the debate and believes it is time for a concerted international policy effort to tackle this problem.  He has touted the benefits of renewable technologies including solar, fuel cells, and wave energy. In July 2000 Blair was instrumental in getting the G-8 to create a Renewables Task Force to adress the problem of lack of any services to about two billion persons in the developing world. This task force delivered an ambitious report in July 2001 at the G-8 meeting in Genoa. Events two months later on September 11 in the United States, however, rescrambled international priorities moving the G-8 report to the back burner.

Early this year, Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed that his country would seek to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide by 60 percent by 2050.  He has argued that the Bush administration is wrong in speculating that fighting global warming would slow economic growth.

Speaking at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002 and what was largely considered a rebuke of the United States without mentioning it directly, he urged the world to face up to the challenge of climate change, ratify the Kyoto Protocol and then do more to reduce emissions and reduce pollution. He stressed the interdependence of different cultures and societies in today’s world and exhorted political leaders to show political will and commitment and warned that poverty and environmental degradation, if unchecked, would spell catastrophe for the global society. 

The Prime Minister, who has assumed the role of Ally-in-Chief of the United States on the issue of war in Iraq has carved out two areas of importance that he wants to engage the US on.  These are the Palestine-Israel conflict and the response to global warming/climate change.  In February 2003 he stated that world leaders should/must not let the Iraq crisis and terrorism distract them from long-term but equally important environmental problems like global warming.

He insists that global leaders have not been nearly bold enough and that “real investment now to tackle the causes of poverty and degradation would not only yield enormous benefits to us in years to come; but they could be such a strong signal of our determination to pursue justice in an even-handed way.”  In spite of progress, Blair says that we are still not meeting the scale of the challenge.  He believes that just as coalitions are built in times of war and crisis, “…a common agenda that recognizes both sets of issues have to be confronted for the world’s security and prosperity to be guaranteed.  There will be no genuine security if the planet is ravaged by climate change.” 

“We will continue to make the case to the US and to others that climate change is a serious threat that we must address together as an international community.  We in Britain have shown that it is possible to break the relationship between economic growth and ever-rising pollution.”

The UK government has promised hundreds of millions of pounds to boost energy efficiency and the use of renewable power sources like wind and waves.  Promising to tighten energy efficiency standards for new homes and appliances and encouraging energy companies to help consumers make homes more efficient, the government is also planning a carbon trading system to come into effect in 2005, in which companies that emit excess carbon dioxide will be able to buy credits from companies that are below their limits.

On the question of nuclear power, the British government’s official energy white paper, spelling out medium to long-term energy strategy, includes no new nuclear power plants but did not rule out building more.  It said nuclear power was too expensive and that the nuclear waste issue had yet to be resolved.  The extension of an emergency loan of about $1.02 billion to bail out a nuclear operator also hasn’t helped.

There will be no genuine security if the planet is ravaged by climate change. - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair

In addition, Prime Ministers Blair and Goeran Persson of Sweden have written to Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitas, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, calling on other European countries to adopt the 60 percent goal.

In principle Tony Blair believes the industrial country requirements of the Kyoto Protocol only amounts to a 2 percent cut and instead embraced a recommendation by the Royal Commission on Environmental Protection that a 60 percent cut by 2050 was necessary to stop warming.  He told a conference of the Sustainable Development Commission in London that it was clear that the Kyoto Protocol is not ambitious enough. 

It still remains to be seen what concrete results  will come out of these statements.  Critics have seen Tony Blair’s veiled criticism of US policy as convenient when the PM is accused of being in the sway of Mr. Bush over Iraq.  His office denies any connection exists between the two.  On the other hand, some Kyoto Protocol critics such as Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute In Washington have begun to worry that Blair might succeed in producing a US about face on the climate change issue.

Links

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech to the World Summit On Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech on sustainable development, 24 February 2003