Blair accused of failing on climate change
Environmentalists have today accused Tony Blair of failing to take action on climate change despite his rhetoric on the international stage.
WWF-UK has condemned the prime minister as becoming more and more like US president George Bush in his attitude towards climate change.
“It is becoming clear that all the talking up has been aimed more at trying to please environmentally-concerned voters and green organisations than demonstrating the will to actually use leadership in tough negotiations,” said campaigns director Andrew Lee.
The criticism comes as Greenpeace volunteers this morning dumped several tonnes of coal outside three entrances in Downing Street to signal their protest ahead of UN talks on climate change later this month in Montreal.
“They told us things can only get better, but Mr Blair’s burning more coal than ever, our CO2 emissions have gone up, he’s set to miss his own global warming targets and now it seems he’s trying to kill off the Kyoto protocol,” said executive director Stephen Tindale.
However, a Downing Street spokesman insisted the prime minister had achieved broad consensus on cutting greenhouse gases among the G8 of leading industrial nations.
Mr Blair has made much of his commitment to tackling climate change, both domestically – Labour renewed its manifesto pledge this year to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent on 1990 levels by 2010 – and internationally.
This morning transport secretary Alistair Darling insisted these targets were “absolutely necessary”, but environmentalists have been concerned by Mr Blair’s apparent move away from emissions-cutting initiatives towards a stronger focus on developing new technologies.
Speaking after a meeting in London earlier this month, he said that while the Kyoto protocol – requiring signatory states to cut emissions by 12.5 per cent on 1990 levels by 2012 – had been important, binding international targets made people “nervous and very worried”.
“The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge,” he said.
Today WWF-UK accused Mr Blair of being all talk and no action, with Mr Lee saying: “The prime minister came into office with many opportunities to show environmental leadership, but despite all of his passionate speeches and reassuring words, when the chips are down he has often jumped the wrong way.”
Yesterday, a coalition of charities including Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth and WWF wrote to Mr Blair calling for him to stick to a target-based approach to cutting greenhouse gases.
Stop Climate Chaos is calling for a new set of international targets on cutting emissions to replace Kyoto, which runs out in 2012.
“Tony Blair’s recent remarks on climate change are giving Kyoto’s opponents – in particular President Bush – the ammunition to kill off the protocol,” said director Ashok Sinha.
“For a prime minister who has championed climate change throughout his EU and G8 presidency, Tony Blair is now in real danger of undermining the most important climate change agreement ever.”
