Word: blaire
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...Blair's choice of venues wasn't an accident - global warming is likely to be high on the agenda at the G8, where leaders from the world's biggest economies, along with representatives from major developing nations like China and India, will try to set a long-term goal for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Speaking in Tokyo, Blair urged world leaders to commit to cutting global carbon emissions 50% by 2050 - including developing nations, which have no obligations under Kyoto - and paving the way toward a firm interim target for cuts by developed nations by 2020. Without near-term...
Speaking to TIME after his speech, Blair - who put climate change high on the G8's agenda when he hosted the 2005 summit in Gleneagles - was characteristically optimistic. "When I began this process in 2005, the issue was one of political will," he said. "But the world has woken up. The question is not, what is the problem, but what is the solution?" In a way, Blair is right. From San Antonio to Shanghai, ordinary people, business leaders and politicians are worried about climate change. They're afraid, and they want something done about it. Even the long recalcitrant...
...world can agree on a problem - it can even agree on what a solution might look like - but that doesn't mean it's ready to act together, as Blair hopes. We're likely to see just how far apart we remain from global consensus at next week's G8 summit in Hokkaido. Developing nations know that climate change is their problem too, but they'll still bargain hard to ensure that rich nations bear most of the burden. The developed world is far from united - though E.U. nations have already committed to at least a 20% reduction in greenhouse...
...Maybe we lack the ability to plan so far in ahead. In the U.S., the talk today is of gas prices, not global warming, and the first serious attempt at a federal carbon cap recently went fell in an embarrassing defeat in the Senate. Present fears overwhelm us, something Blair should know well - his Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 was meant to focus on development and climate change, but it was instead dominated by the London bombings, which had occurred a few days earlier...
...Blair seems resolute to meet the climate challenge, and he has the right ideas. "If you've got children, you want them to grow up in a world that doesn't have catastrophic climate change," he said. But after a few more months of hitting his head against the climate wall, he might want to spend his retirement years working on something a bit easier. Like Mideast peace...