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Schwarzenegger and Blair focus on global threat
by Howard Swanwick
01/08/2006:// British Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have signed an agreement to reduce global warming by focusing on research and development of cleaner fuels.
Schwarzenegger expressed concern at the lack of drive from federal Government to solve the problems presented by climate change and said that the Californian/British pace would go some way towards finding new ways of working together.
Tony Blair called the crisis of climate change 'long term, the single biggest issue we face'.
The agreements will bring the development of clean burn fuels to the forefront and will look into the possibility of the allowing polluters to buy and sell the rights to emit pollutants.
Charles Kennel, of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography called it 'sea change in the minds of responsible people'.
However there is a tide of opinion from environmentalists that this is too little, too late, amounting to nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Environment California called the pact nothing more than hot air, saying that without a state law being created and enforced, global warming would continue at the same rate.
The Natural Resources Defense Council called for less talk and more action, calling for a capping of green house gases by state legislature.
The Bush administration has so far failed to order any sort of capping of green house gases, generated from burning fossil fuels.
Critics of the Californian Governor say this is simply a means to distance himself from the Republican administration, with state elections looming in November. President Bush's popularity has been recorded at an all time low.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality called the move 'a wonderful amplification' of the talks last year between Bush and Blair, heralded by many as fruitless.
Phil Angelides, the Democrat challenger to Schwarzenegger, commented that the agreement was characteristically low on specific details, and simply washed over many of the details of how to achieve the long term goals of pollution reduction.
In the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 agreement to cap green house gases from power stations and factories, Mr. Bush rejected the treaty as unworkable.
One of the main targets for Britain and California, is the to reduce emissions from automotive transport. These contribute 28 and 41 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions respectively.
Schwarzenegger aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010. California was the 12th-largest contributor of greenhouse gases last year, which exceeds many countries total output.
Blair wants to reduce carbon emissions to 60 percent of Britain's 1990 levels by 2050.
For information of alternative fuels for your car visit:
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