Fantasy and reality

The fantasy: Blair: US may back carbon deal

The US may be willing to back an agreement at next month's G8 summit on cutting carbon dioxide emissions, Tony Blair has said on BBC TV.

The reality: U.S. Rejects German Plan to Cut Carbon Emissions

The United States has rejected Germany's bid to get the Group of Eight to agree to tough cuts in climate warming carbon emissions, according to a draft of the communique to be presented to next month's meeting.

[...]

``We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position,'' the U.S. said in red ink comments at the start of a copy of the draft communique seen by Reuters on Friday.

``The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to.''

Poor Tony - all that work invading Iraq and he has nothing to show for it other than the threat of war-crimes charges.

Meanwhile, it's becoming clear that if the world wants to move fast on this, we'll have to do it without the US. Their position will almost certainly change after the 2008 presidential election - even the Republican candidates seem to have recognised that Al Gore has won the argument with the US electorate - but I'm not sure we can afford to wait that long.