US rejects all proposals on climate change

It appears as if Bush is to humiliate Blair one last time before he steps down by totally rejecting any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany next month, according to a leaked document.

Blair has expressed confidence that the US will sign up to "at least the beginnings" of actions to cut carbon emissions, but a leak from the US says that they are "fundamentally opposed" to the proposals.

The note, written in red ink, says the deal "runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to".

"This document is called FINAL but we never agreed to any of the climate language present in the document ... We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position," it says.

The tone is blunt, with whole pages of the draft crossed out and even the mildest statements about confirming previous agreements rejected. "The proposals within the sections titled 'Fighting Climate Change' and 'Carbon Markets' are fundamentally incompatible with the President's approach to climate change," says another red-ink comment.

Blair said, only on Thursday, that the US was moderating it's position on climate change as the summit approached, so this is embarrassing to say the least. It certainly now seems impossible that Blair will manage to get Bush to sign up to any proposal on climate change before he leaves office.

The truth is that Bush has given Blair nothing for all his support.

Before visiting the White House this month, the prime minister suggested that he was close to persuading George Bush to accept the establishment of carbon trading schemes, one of five main proposals drawn up ahead of the G8. But Washington rejected the sections on carbon trading, saying to back trading schemes would imply acceptance of emission caps.

It is impossible now to imagine the summit producing anything other than a meaningless agreement. I'm really not going to swipe at Blair now as I do think he has honestly tried to sway this stupid man the White House, but the thick little ideologue is obviously so sworn to his particular mindset - that ignores every scientific fact known on this subject - that he is not going to be swayed.

As well as cutting global emissions, Germany had stated in its draft that it wanted agreement to curb the rise in average temperatures this century to 2C and raise energy efficiency in power and transport by 20% by 2020. Both positions are compatible with policies in California and other US states, which have set their own targets and timetables.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, this week suggested that there was little hope of a deal. She said preliminary talks at the EU-Russia summit and in meetings with G8 members had been "difficult".

The director of Greenpeace, John Sauven, said the leaked document proved Britain had failed to influence the US. "Despite his protestations to the contrary Tony Blair's efforts to persuade George Bush of the importance of tackling climate change have singularly failed," he said.

Germany is now about to raise the stakes, saying that they will block decisions on all other matters until the US and others agree to make changes in environmental policies stating: "America doesn't want to commit to firm goals. We can't put the global future of our children at risk because of the narrow-mindedness of individual negotiating partners."

And "narrow-minded" is the best way to describe the Bush mindset. Blair had a hard time persuading a creationist of the importance of scientific research and it's implications for the future of the planet. We can hardly blame Blair for that, can we?

A man who believes that children should be taught creationism in schools obviously doesn't have any understanding of what scientific theory is, so Blair was obviously always hitting his head off a brick wall attempting to persuade such a person of the dangers of climate change.

However, it is the entire planet that will pay the price for Bush's stupidity.

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