Kyoto's the key

Environment groups are alarmed at the conflicting signals Tony Blair has been giving on climate change. Tony Juniper urges the UK to lead the fight for legally-binding agreements at next week's talks in Montreal. Next week 10,000 people will start to gather in Montreal for what are expected to be the most important climate change negotiations since the agreement of the Kyoto protocol in 1997. Put simply, the scientific consensus is that only a small window of opportunity remains to avoid dangerous climate change. If governments can take sufficient action to cut emissions within a decade or so, then there is a chance of avoiding going above the two degrees centigrade of global warming that could make climate change unstoppable, causing massive economic damage and millions of deaths. The Montreal talks, which will seek to set a framework for what happens after the first phase of the Kyoto agreement runs out in 2012, will be key to determining the future for all life on earth.