last updated 4th October 05
by 4ecotips.com

Eco-campaigners question fresh approach

A report by David Adams, The Guardian's environment correspondent, says environmental campaigners demanded that Tony Blair clarify his comments on global warming after he appeared to shift away from a target-based approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. He was speaking at a two-day international conference in London of environment and energy ministers.

Adams writes, the Prime Minister said "informal mechanisms" were needed to address global warming that were likely to include an increasing focus on the private sector. Blair said countries would not sacrifice economic growth for external agreements.

Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "We need to understand immediately what he means by that. His role at the moment is pivotal. He's the only world leader who's pushing climate change as an issue that has to be dealt with. So what he says is going to carry particular weight and he's basically just rewritten the history of climate change politics.

Phil Thornhill, from the Campaign Against Climate Change, said: The idea that we're going to deal with a problem as massive as this on a voluntary basis is pure, self-serving fantasy and wishful thinking. If you have mandatory limits there will be investment in new technology.

"The trouble with Blair is that he says we need international agreement to move forward on climate change but it's also important to have something to agree on.

"If we agreed to do nothing or next to nothing, it's just as bad as having no agreement. People have agreed that we need targets. To have a treaty with no targets is like having a peace treaty where you can still fire guns."

Adam's says in his report that Mr Blair had been seen as a strong supporter of the Kyoto protocol and was thought to be keen on working towards finding a successor to the treaty. In September the government was still arguing that China and India's plans did not go far enough when they gave their backing to a US plan that backs technology, not emissions targets, as a solution.