Blair: U.S. help crucial to global warming fight

GATESHEAD, England – Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday that securing U.S. support for tackling global warming was the crucial diplomatic challenge for the coming months.

Britain has made the battle against climate change a priority for its chairmanship of the G-8 group of industrial nations this year, and insists countries can cut the carbon emissions believed to contribute to global warming without affecting economic growth.

Washington, however, has rejected the internationally agreed Kyoto climate change accord on the grounds it would damage the U.S. economy. Kyoto comes into effect Wednesday with 136 countries signed up.

During a question and answer session at the governing Labour Party’s conference, Blair said it was important to reach an international consensus on the issue, though he has said it is futile to try to overcome hostility in the Bush administration and Congress to Kyoto.

“The most important thing is to try to re-establish, one a dialogue, and two a real direction of travel. At the moment there is Kyoto, which America is outside,” Blair said. “I think the blunt reality is that, unless America comes back into some form of international consensus, it is very hard to make progress.”

The prime minister is often mocked as Washington’s poodle, and many in his party believe he follows U.S. policy without exerting any real influence. Gaining President Bush’s support for Britain’s G-8 goal of tackling climate change is regarded as an important test of whether Blair’s voice is heard in the White House.

In London, several hundred protesters marched on the U.S. Embassy, demanding Bush sign Kyoto and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are out here to save the planet,” said Mark Hartung, one of about 350 people who braved cold and rain to demonstrate. “This march is a passionate plea for Bush to sign the Kyoto.”