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Blair on climate change

Mike Brady | 02.11.2005 09:06 | Analysis | Ecology | Globalisation

Tony has said it. Action on climate change is impossible due to competition between nations. See  http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1606602,00.html
Time for SP to move up a gear.

Letter sent to the Guardian:

Tony Blair says: "The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge."

No, Tony, this is only true when countries are forced to compete for investment and jobs and businesses and financial markets threaten to move elsewhere if effective action is taken on climate change. Simultaneous action by all, or sufficient, governments removes the threat of disinvestment.

But Tony is right, politicians are not up to the task because they are trapped in the system of competition. Politicians have failed us. To address climate change will take we, the people of the world, leading the way by seeking agreement across national boundaries on the policies we wish to see implemented and giving our leaders an ultimatum - implement our Simultaneous Policy package or lose our support.

Such a campaign is being promoted by the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation, which has already received pledges from members of the UK and European Parliaments and Australian Senate to implement the Simultaneous Policy (SP) alongside other countries.

Join the campaign by signing up free of charge as an SP Adopter at  http://www.simpol.org.uk/ to increase the pressure for governments across the planet to support SP.

Mike Brady
- e-mail: mikebrady@simpol.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.simpol.org.uk/

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Goodbye Vienna

02.11.2005 19:08

We can't do with this kind of thinking anymore.

Time for the world to turn Green!

disbeliever in hype


Agreed but...

03.11.2005 13:27

Agreed, but it should be noted that simultaneous action will never be taken so long as everyone is waiting for the U.S. to follow suit. The U.S. won't take any interest in environmental protection anytime soon, regardless of rational arguments, and if it weren't for politicians' sycophantic determination to suck up to George Bush, Kyoto would already be implemented in most other countries by now. In any case, China and India are far more important to get on board than the U.S. now that their populations are expanding, and using Americans rather than Europeans as their role models (buying cars, another form of sycophantic, pro-Bush, self-defeating behaviour). Right now, China isn't even included under Kyoto, but urgently needs to be, as by 2025 at the latest, they are expected to surpass the U.S. in environmental degradation.

-B.Z.

Blue Zappa