Kyoto protocol on climate changes Insufficient: Blair
By Raza Mumtaz - PakistanTimes.net Foreign Editor

LONDON (UK): British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that the Kyoto Protocol is failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions and warned this would only be achieved by forging a new united front with the United States.

China, India and other emerging economies that require large amounts of energy to fuel their rapid growth must also be fully involved in any effective remedy to combat global warming once Kyoto expires in 2012, he said.

The comments—made ahead of a high-level meeting on climate change in London this week—appear to bring Blair more in line with US President George W. Bush’s opinion of the 1997 United Nations pact.

Kyoto sets legally binding targets for developed countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by 2012.

Bush Refuses

But President Bush has refused to sign up because he believes the treaty’s binding targets are too costly for the US economy and unfair because fast-growing developing countries are not part of the targeted emissions cuts.

“We know climate change is a major threat. And worries over security of energy supply and rising oil prices are pushing energy policy to the top of the agenda,” Blair said.

“But we must understand that neither issue can realistically be dealt with unless the US, the EU, Russia, Japan, China and India work together,” he added.●