-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Stop the Blair Betrayal on Climate
Date: 	Thu, 17 Nov 2005 01:10:44 -0000
From: 	Phil Thornhill <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: 	Campaign against Climate Change
To: 	<[log in to unmask]>



**C****ampaign against ****C****limate ****C****hange**

 

 

/*/STOP THE BLAIR BETRAYAL ON CLIMATE !/*/

 

/*/Don't let Blair wreck the world's hopes of averting 
climate-catastrophe by reversing 15-years of British support for the 
only kind of climate treaty that will work - one based on legally 
binding targets for mandatory emissions cuts./*/

 

Britain has played an important role in promoting the Kyoto protocol 
and building the consensus around the need for an international treaty 
on climate with binding targets for emissions reductions. That consensus 
has been weakened, of course, by the opposition of the US (with 
Australia in tow) but it now threatens to collapse entirely if Britain 
withdraws its support. Incredibly this is just what recent recent 
pronouncements by Tony Blair have suggested might happen - he seems to 
be selling out completely to take up a position closer and closer to 
that of Bush and his oil-industry-dominated administration.

 

Just as awareness of climate change in the US is at last beginning to 
take off, and as discussions begin in Montreal for a post-Kyoto climate 
treaty, Blair's U-turn looks likely to fatally undermine the push for an 
effective emissions-reductions treaty and could even mean that we 
face the prospect of the world taking a step //backwards//  - away from 
the principle that any treay must be based on legally binding targets 
towards the fantasy that "voluntary incentives" and "new technology" 
will somehow magically solve the problem. This makes it absolutely 
critical that we act now - especially here in the UK - and pull out all 
the stops to prevent this happening. Blair is now weak and 
his threatened U-turn on climate probably does not have the support of 
most MPs even in his own party.

 

**Our December 3rd Climate March ( see www.campaigncc.org 
<http://www.campaigncc.org> ) gives us a god-sent opportunity to put 
pressure on Blair at this critical moment - and we will now change the 
original focus to target Blair as well as Bush. We have negotiated a 
change in the route of the march **/*/so that it will now pass Downing 
Street/*/** before finishing up at the US embassy as originally 
planned.  The message will be "No Blair Betrayal on Climate".  To show 
this is not just gratuitous Blair-bashing we will hand in a demand to 10 
Downing Street that the British government publicly **/*/reaffirm/*/** 
its commitment to an international emissions-reductions treaty with 
legally binding targets. **

 

**/>>>> In the meantime you can help stack up the pressure on Blair by 
joining the 'Stop Climate Chaos' e-action : this involves emailing your 
MP and urging them to ask Tony Blair to publicly state his support for 
legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gases. Why not do this 
straight away by going to /****/*www.stopclimatechaos.org/lobby.asp* 
<http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/lobby.asp> /****/? /**

 

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