Tony Blair: 'Heavy price' for climate inaction

World leaders may pay a heavy price in history if they fail to tackle global warming, Tony Blair has warned.

He said politicians did not have to wait for chaotic climate change in order for them to act.

The risks of not cutting emissions, given the potentially massive consequences, was enough to justify action, he told BBC Radio 4 ...

BBC NEWS  06 Sept 2010    Climate Chaos

Following the ‘climategate scandal’, Mr Blair said the science may not be “as certain as its proponents allege”.

But he said the world should act as a precaution against floods, droughts and mass extinction caused by climate change, in fact it would be “grossly irresponsible” not to ...

... despite sceptics claiming emails stolen from the University of East Anglia question the science, he said it was urgent to act now.

“It is said that the science around climate change is not as certain as its proponents allege. It doesn’t need to be. What is beyond debate, however, is that there is a huge amount of scientific support for the view that the climate is changing and as a result of human activity,” he said ...

Mr Blair insisted that even a weak agreement would set the world on a path to a "low carbon future" by encouraging investment in green energy and he suggested a review every five years to toughen targets.

He also called for an agreement to halt deforestation that is responsible for a fifth of the world's emissions by paying poor countries not to chop down trees ...

Telegraph  13 Dec 2009

Tony Blair called on the leaders of the Group of Eight nations to map out a practical and effective solution to the problem of global warming as he unveiled a report by the non-profit Climate Group in Tokyo ...

Blair pointed out (that) the world's public already recognises that global warming is a serious problem but is waiting on global leaders to map out a genuine solution....



Telegraph  27 June 2008

Blair to lead campaign on climate change

The UK faces a "catastrophe" of floods, droughts and killer heatwaves if world leaders fail to agree a deal on climate change, the prime minister has warned.

Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the "impasse".

He told the Major Economies Forum in London, which brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries, there was "no plan B" ...

BBC NEWS  19 October 2009

The aviation industry will tomorrow make a dramatic pledge to slash carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2050 in a move that will force up air fares and spark a green technology race among aircraft manufacturers.

The British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, will unveil an agreement between airlines, airports and aircraft companies to cut emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2050.

In a bid to seize the initiative from environmental groups clamouring for higher taxes on the industry, the plan will be presented to world leaders at the United Nations forum on climate change in New York ...

The pledges drawn up by members of the global airline body, the International Air Transport Association, are:

• To reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by 50% by 2050, compared with 2005 levels.

• To make all industry growth carbon-neutral by 2020.

• To cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5% per year over the next decade.

• To submit plans for joining a global carbon trading scheme to the UN by November 2010.

The 50% reduction target by 2050 goes further than the UK government's target of limiting airline emissions to 2005 levels by the same deadline ...

... campaigners suggested the new pledge was undermined by its reliance on the industry funding emissions cuts elsewhere.

"It is a real problem that this will include offsetting and buying carbon credits," said John Sauven, director of Greenpeace. "It shows that Willie Walsh is not really taking the issue of climate change seriously."

Aviation accounts for 1.6% of global greenhouse emissions currently, but will become the biggest emitter in the developed world if it grows unchecked.

The government's advisory body, the committee on climate change, warned ministers this month that aviation will account for a quarter of all emissions in the developed world even if it caps 2050 emissions at 2005 levels ...

Guardian  21 September 2009

Willie Walsh's 'challenging target'

Adonis defends aviation industry over emissions

Airline emissions 'far higher than previous estimates'

Bumpy take-off for aviation biofuel

Aviation Biofuels

Biofuels: Airbus & Boeing

Biofuels: Airbus & Boeing

Replacing Kerosene

Ruth Kelly's 'offsets'

We can expand Heathrow and still tackle climate change

We will protect air travel for the masses

Will biofuels power tomorrow's planes?

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much his Department and its predecessors spent on (a) wind, (b) tidal, (c) solar and (d) geothermal power development in the last five years. [259497]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: DTI's renewable energy R and D expenditure on these areas before the activity transferred to the Technology Strategy Board in 2007 was.

Hansard  18 March 2009

Darling urges action on climate change

Tony Blair said the Stern Review showed that scientific evidence of global warming was "overwhelming" and its consequences "disastrous" ...

[He] said the consequences for the planet of inaction were "literally disastrous".

"This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime," he said.

"Investment now will pay us back many times in the future, not just environmentally but economically as well."

"For every £1 invested now we can save £5, or possibly more, by acting now.

"We can't wait the five years it took to negotiate Kyoto - we simply don't have the time. We accept we have to go further (than Kyoto)." ...

BBC NEWS 31 October 2006

Wikipedia

At-a-glance: The Stern Review

Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford

... tonight I want to concentrate on what I believe to be the world’s greatest environmental challenge: climate change.

Our effect on the environment, and in particular on climate change, is large and growing

To summarise my argument at the outset:

From the start of the industrial revolution more than 200 years ago, developed nations have achieved ever greater prosperity and higher living standards. But through this period our activities have come to affect our atmosphere, oceans, geology, chemistry and biodiversity.

What is now plain is that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialisation and strong economic growth from a world population that has increased sixfold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that began as significant, has become alarming and is simply unsustainable in the long-term.

And by long-term I do not mean centuries ahead. I mean within the lifetime of my children certainly; and possibly within my own. And by unsustainable, I do not mean a phenomenon causing problems of adjustment. I mean a challenge so far-reaching in its impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters radically human existence.

The problem and let me state it frankly at the outset - is that the challenge is complicated politically by two factors.

First, its likely effect will not be felt to its full extent until after the time for the political decisions that need to be taken, has passed. In other words, there is a mismatch in timing between the environmental and electoral impact.

Secondly, no one nation alone can resolve it. It has no definable boundaries. Short of international action commonly agreed and commonly followed through, it is hard even for a large country to make a difference on its own.

But there is no doubt that the time to act is now. It is now that timely action can avert disaster ...

Number 10  14 September 2004

Stark warning over climate change

... In 2002, nuclear power accounted for 23% of electricity generated in the UK.

By 2025 there will only be one nuclear power plant in operation and since the government currently has no plans to build new plants, they need to develop alternative energy sources ...

The White Paper puts forward plans to avoid over-dependence on imported energy by developing renewable energy sources within the UK.

In his forward to the Energy White Paper, Tony Blair states that 'We are showing leadership by putting the UK on a path to a 60% reduction in its carbon dioxide emissions by 2050'.

There are four goals for the government's new energy policy:

• cutting carbon dioxide emissions
• maintaining the reliability of energy supplies
• promoting "competitive markets in the UK and beyond"
• ensuring that every home is adequately and affordably heated

How will these be achieved?

Energy efficiency - the cheapest and safest way of addressing all four aims - through 'policies to raise the energy efficiency of products and buildings'.

Increasing renewable energy supply - to reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on imported energy by increasing the funding for capital grants for renewable energy and adapting electricity distribution networks so that renewable energy sources can both take from and add to the 'national grid'.

Carbon emissions trading scheme - setting caps on emissions in industry to 'provide clear incentives for investment in energy efficiency and cleaner technologies'.

Technological innovation - supporting research and development into new long term options (such as hydrogen economy) and allowing current renewable energy supplies to 'demonstrate their potential'.

BBC NEWS  March 2003

Prime Minister Tony Blair today announced a £100 million boost for renewable energy sources on the eve of a Budget expected to give further tax incentives on "green" fuel for motorists.

His call for concerted action, aimed at the United States and the EU, underlined Mr Blair's concern about the impact of climate change.

He was swiftly accused of a "pre-election stunt" by the Tories, although pressure groups welcomed his speech.

Mr Blair warned of the growing severity of extreme weather events and exceptional flooding and snow storms that have hit the UK and other parts of the world in recent months.

He also cautioned there was no room for complacency, with Third World countries facing "catastrophic" consequences if nothing was done to reduce polluting gases from industry and transport.

Mr Blair, in his third key environmental speech since Labour's 1997 general election victory, warned politicians that failure at the next round of climate talks in Bonn in July would be a "bitter blow".

Pledging to attend a landmark environmental conference in South Africa next year, the Prime Minister said it would be "irresponsible" to treat predictions of the effect of global warming as scare-mongering.

"They represent the considered opinion of some of the world's best scientists. We cannot afford to ignore them," he told a London audience of academics and lobbyists ...

Climate Ark  06 March 2001