Bush All Set To Support Climate Window-Dressing At G8 - Blair

[hatrack]

TONY Blair is negotiating a "Gleneagles Declaration" on climate change that would sign the United States up to a new world plan of action on global warming. The statement would accept that the US will never sign the Kyoto Treaty, which commits signatories to reducing greenhouse gases. Instead, it would recognise US efforts to fight global warming in its own way, with extensive investment in new fuel technology.

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After his dinner with George Bush, the US president, on Tuesday, Mr Blair said it was no longer productive to chastise Washington for saying no to the Kyoto Treaty. But the Prime Minister is confident his ambitions set out for Gleneagles can still be realised by a new deal which British diplomats are in the final stages of negotiating.

EDIT

However, Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, dismissed the latest development. "So far, all that we have seen, and that includes leaked documents obtained by The Scotsman, is very much another case of window dressing," he said. "The policy seems to be to get the US to agree to anything in which the British government can then claim to have made progress at Gleneagles and the G8 summit. "We still have a situation whereby all the major developed countries have agreed to the Kyoto Treaty except for the US. America ... must be faced down by Blair so it plays a full part. Otherwise, countries like China will not sign up."

Greenpeace said: "Blair may as well have not bothered to cross the Atlantic. He calls climate change the gravest problem this planet faces, but the response from George Bush is worse than pathetic. "The Prime Minister has argued with grand rhetoric on climate change, but President Bush is simply unwilling to deliver." Colin Breed, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman, said it would be unacceptable for Mr Blair to paper over the cracks on Kyoto with a Gleneagles document that put a spin on what the US was doing anyway. "Committing to spend a certain amount on technology would be a pretty meaningless declaration unless the Americans pledge to use this new technology for specific targets on greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "Unless the Bush administration sets down targets to actually use it, such advances are pretty irrelevant."

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http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=631882005

[RobertSeattle]

1. Use his own "Culture of Life" Rhetoric against him

There is no higher form of "Culture of Life" than insuring Human Life will be sustainable on Earth.

[NNadir]

2. Window dressing works. Look at Governor Hydrogen Hummer.

We're hearing all about his million solar roofs bill. The bill is meaningless, will do nothing, but apparently it makes people stupid and happy, allowing them to pretend that something is being done.

The problem with our times is that pretense is confused with practice.

[baby_bear]

3. thanks for this post, hatrack

I will spread it around to my colleagues. It's just so Bush/Blair, if you know what I mean.

ptui.

b_b