Britain's Blair to keep up pressure on US over Kyoto

[struggle4progress]

LONDON (AFP) Jul 06, 2004

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday that climate change was the greatest long-term problem facing the world today and that the United States should be encouraged to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
<snip>

"The single biggest long-term problem we face is the issue of climate change," he said.
<snip>

Blair, who was speaking in the House of Commons, Britain's lower legislative chamber, admitted he did not share the United States view on Kyoto. Washington has so far refused to ratify the treaty.

But he said it would be wrong to give up trying to convince Washington to change its mind, underlining that it was not only US President George W. Bush that was opposed to ratifying the treaty, but the US Congress as well.
<snip>

http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040706171053.lylk4cdw.html


This tightrope act, as Blair daintily attempts to distance himself from Bush at home, without alienating Bush, may be fun to watch ...

[mom cat]

1. Blair is seeing what is happening to other leaders who have been

supporting Bush. Is the poodle learning new tricks?

[Hobarticus]

2. Tony, it's over...take up needlepoint.

Find a hobby. No one takes you seriously anymore.

[BillZBubb]

3. More Bushshit from the Poodle.

"Pressure"? Who the Cheney is he trying to fool? Nobody is stupid enough to believe he'd ever put pressure on his master or that he could. Blair is a bad joke.

[hatrack]

4. Well gosh, Tony, they've got a couple of divisions of your guys in Iraq

IOW, they got what they wanted, and now you think they're suddenly going to start "caring" about the environment?

And just why would they do that, Poodle, what's in it for them? You didn't think they'd do it to please you, did you?

Lotsa luck with your new career.

[struggle4progress]

5. Blair: US stance on climate change shifting

Thursday, July 8, 2004 Posted: 1347 GMT (2147 HKT)

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday he believed U.S. opposition to addressing the problem of climate change was softening, although London and Washington were still at odds over the issue.
<snip>

"I think increasingly within the United States the debate is shifting," Blair told a parliamentary committee. "I think they accept the science of it. The question is what you do about it. That is in itself a significant change we need to build upon."

Blair, who has come under fire from many in his Labour Party over his proximity to Bush, said he often raised climate change and the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions -- which Washington has rejected -- in "perfectly friendly" debate with Bush but he said there was huge opposition in the U.S. Congress.

Pledging to put climate change at the center of Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations next year, Blair said he did not expect Washington to suddenly back Kyoto at the G8, "whatever the famed British influence or not."
<snip>

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/07/08/climate.usa.blair.reut/

Possible Translation: Blair, under pressure at home to show some benefit of close relation with *, hauls out Kyoto as an example of possible UK influence on US; expects DC to launch pro-nuke initiative as alternative to Kyoto; will then take credit.

[hatrack]

6. I think your possible translation is right on target

But if he thinks this is going to prove politically beneficial at home, he's got a few more screws loose than I thought.