The World Must Isolate Bush Over Climate Change (Independent UK, via CommonDreams)

Published on Sunday, June 3, 2007 by The Independent/UK

The World Must Isolate Bush Over Climate Change
by Geoffrey Lean

Tony Blair may have only a little more than three weeks left in office, but that gives him plenty of time for his greatest ever international triumph, or for his biggest betrayal yet. How he handles his relationship with President George Bush over the next week is likely to determine whether or not the world will seize the best (and quite possibly the last) chance of tackling global warming before it is too late.

This weekend, the familiar scent of betrayal is in the air, as the Prime Minister appeared once again to rush to provide cover for his war-mate in the White House, just as it looked as if he may finally be forced by being isolated, both at home and abroad, to change his ways.

For months, pressure has been building on the President to give enough ground to make possible a breakthrough at this week’s G8 summit. Last week, although he changed his rhetoric over climate change, at the same time he sought to kick the issue into touch by proposing a new series of US-led talks, vaguely aimed at agreeing a series of non-binding measures by the end of 2008.

Sigmar Gabriel, the environment minister of Germany, which is hosting the summit in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm, immediately denounced the proposal as an attempt to “torpedo the international climate protection process”. By contrast, the Prime Minister promptly hailed Mr Bush’s move as “a huge step forward”, raising fears that his instinct to cosy up to the Toxic Texan will relieve the pressure at the most crucial moment.

One former Downing Street adviser yesterday described it as “Blair’s Munich moment”. And if he does indeed let the President off the hook at Heiligendamm, he is likely to destroy international attempts through the UN to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, fatally defer moves in the US Congress to curb pollution at home, and deny himself the chance to go out on a high, with a foreign policy success finally under his belt. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/03/1626/