Blair seeks US support on global warming

[paineinthearse]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1399192,00.html

Blair seeks US support on global warming

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Wednesday January 26, 2005

Guardian Unlimited

Tony Blair tonight sought to win US backing for measures to tackle global warming, insisting steps to address the issue did not have to lead to "drastic" cuts in living standards. Addressing international political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the prime minister said an international consensus was emerging on climate change. However, he also warned that governments could not be expected to push through changes that would seriously damage their economic prospects. "If we put forward as a solution to climate change something that involves drastic cuts in growth or standards of living - it matters not how justified it is - it simply won't be agreed to," he said.

His speech appeared designed to win over the US administration, which has refused to sign up to the Kyoto Treaty. The treaty sets tough international targets for reducing damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
However, Mr Blair's words are likely to alarm environmentalists, who will see them as a watering down of his commitment to use Britain's presidency of the G8 group of industrialised nations to tackle climate change. Mr Blair used his speech to argue that the US administration was now ready to engage with the international community on a range of issues following the bitter divisions caused by the Iraq war. He added that the inauguration speech by the US president, George Bush, had shown a "consistent evolution in US policy". "America accepts that terrorism cannot be defeated by military might alone," Mr Blair said. "The more people who live under democracy with human liberty intact, the less inclined they or their states will be to indulge in terrorism."

He said the US realised it was in its "enlightened self-interest" to engage with the rest of the world. "Freedom is good in itself but it is also the best guarantee that human beings will live in sympathy with each other," he said. "The hard head has led to the warm heart."

more......