Jay Currie

When Tony Blair recognizes in print that

We need to cut greenhouse gas emissions radically but Kyoto doesn’t even stabilise them….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.
the observer

Kyoto is really all over save the shouting.

Blair – like the US, India, China and Australia – has realized that the solution – if there is one – to human induced climate change – if that actually exists – is technological rather than bureaucratic,

We need to see how the existing energy technologies we have such as wind, solar and – yes – nuclear, together with new technologies such as fuel cells and carbon capture and storage, can generate the low carbon power the world needs.
the observer

Cleaner, more efficient energy generation is a good in itself. It has the potential to make energy cheaper, more abundant and much cleaner. The illusion of change implicit in carbon trading (which, sadly, Blair still endorses) and mandated carbon reductions under threat of fines simply postpones the day when it wil make economic sense to move away from fossil fuels towards more efficient energy sources and more effective energy uses.

Remember this number: China uses seven times the energy input per unit of production as America does. Reducing that to, say three times will do much more towards the reduction of carbon emissions than virtually anything proposed in Kyoto.