International unity on the way ahead is a must this time, says the Prime Minister

02/11/2005

This week is a potentially crucial week in the fight against climate change. On Tuesday the UK hosts the first meeting under the new Gleneagles dialogue between the G8 and China India Brazil Mexico and South Africa. I want to explain why this is important and why I believe the difficulties with the current climate change debate is the trouble with so much internationalpolitics: a reluctance to face up to reality and the practical action needed to tackle problems. 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. But we must understand that neither issue can realistically be dealt with unless the US the EU Russia Japan China and India work together.

We also have to recognise that while the Kyoto Protocol takes us in the right direction it is not enough. We need to cut greenhouse gas emissions radically but Kyoto doesn't even stabilise them. It won't work as intended either unless the US is part of it. It's easy to take frustrations out on the Bush Administration but people forget that the Senate voted 95-0 against Kyoto when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

We have to understand as well that even if the US did sign up to Kyoto it wouldn't affect the huge growth in energy consumption we will see in India and China. China is building close to a new power station every week. They need economic growth to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty but want to grow sustainably. We have to find a way as a start to help them. Emissions trading is going well in Europe even if it is not finding it easy to meet Kyoto targets. And of course the first Kyoto commitment period ends in 2012. The challenge is what will come next. Will it be another round of division or what we need: a sound rational science-based unity which ensures the right legally-binding framework to incentivise sustainable development?

There are huge opportunities in environmental technology and huge possibilities in sustainable development if the right framework for low carbon energy generation can be stimulated. But none of this is going to happen unless the major developed and emerging nations sit down together and work it out in a way that allows us all to grow imposes no competitive disadvantage and enables the transfer of the technology needed for sustainable growth to take place.