Blair, Merkel back alliance against climate change
03 Nov 2006 21:38:34 GMT Source: Reuters
(Updates with news conference) By Sophie Walker LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on Friday to work closely together to build a strong international alliance to fight global warming. Blair said he saw a real opportunity to make progress in promoting global action towards climate change next year when Germany takes over the presidency of both the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations and the European Union. "We will give every support we can," Blair said at a joint news conference with Merkel after talks in London. "I'm very happy to note that the two of us will work on this closely," Merkel said. Merkel said the two leaders had also discussed the Middle East peace process and had agreed Syria should be given a chance to show it was ready to play a constructive role. "We cannot simply say we completely refuse to talk to you," she said of Syria. A senior adviser to Blair met President Bashar al-Assad this week on an unannounced visit to Syria, marking a change in British policy towards Damascus. Britain, along with France and other European countries, reduced contacts with Syria to a minimum after last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Merkel has said she will make fighting climate change a priority of Germany's dual presidencies next year. DETERMINED ACTION Britain hopes a new report it commissioned, which found ignoring global warming could plunge the world into an economic crisis on a par with the 1930s Depression, will spur the world into determined action. The Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations plan for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming, runs out in 2012. Blair says any post-Kyoto framework must include the United States, the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, as well as major developing countries such as China and India. Officials from 189 countries will hunt for new ways to fight climate change at United Nations' talks in Kenya next week. The Europeans face a difficult task in winning round U.S. President George W. Bush, who pulled the United States out of Kyoto in 2001 because he said it would cut U.S. jobs and wrongly left out developing nations. "We have a very important task here to persuade our Canadian and our American friends that this is a very important issue for all of us," she said. Canada is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol but the ruling Conservatives say the country cannot meet the treaty's goals. Blair said there were "signs of hope" of a change in American attitudes towards climate change because, in many U.S. states, both Republicans and Democrats were demanding action against climate change. "I think there is a tremendous opportunity," he said. (Additional reporting by Adrian Croft)
