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G8 'a failure' if no climate deal
06/06/2007 08:18 - (SA)
London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview published on Wednesday that the American position on climate change was "on the move" and anything less than a global deal on cuts in carbon emissions at the upcoming G8 summit would be a failure.
Though many of the Group of Eight industrialised nations back substantial cuts in greenhouse gases, US President George W Bush has not accepted binding cuts and said that any agreement would require the inclusion of large developing countries such as China and India.
Blair acknowledged there was considerable distance to go to reconcile the positions, but said that Bush's proposals last week signalled the US's position on climate change was "on the move".
His comments to The Guardian daily come as a summit of G8 leaders opens in Germany later on Wednesday in which climate change is at the top of the agenda.
"I think the announcement by President Bush last week was significant and important, and it is absurd to say otherwise, since it moved things on," Blair said.
"On the other hand you then need to flesh out what it means," referring to critics' comments that Bush's proposals lacked detail and indicated the US president wants to seek a deal outside the UN framework.
As Blair will be stepping down as prime minister on June 27, the G8 summit in the German Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm will be his last as Britain's leader, and he said that he "will be going for the maximum (cut in carbon emissions) and I will want more".
America, China 'political realities'
"The important thing is that if we get an agreement to the idea of a global target of a substantial reduction in emissions, and it needs to be clear that it is in the order of 50%. You are not talking about 20%."
Blair acknowledged the high expectations surrounding the summit, telling the newspaper: "Failure is if there is not an agreement that leads to a global deal with substantial reduction in emissions at the heart of it."
He noted the American desire that China be included in any agreement, saying: "There are two political realities. One is that America will not sign up to a global deal unless China is in it and the second is that China will not sign up to a deal that impedes its economic progress."
"Unless you get these key players together sitting round the table and agreed, you will float back into a Kyoto-style process which may end up with a treaty at the end of it but does not include the big emitters."
The prime minister said that the next steps, after agreeing on a global target for carbon cuts, would be "how to meet the global target, how different cap and trade systems can link up, how the developing world can have common but differentiated obligations, and how you set up a proper carbon price that incentivises business."
- AFP
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