2 November 2005
The Prime Minister has spoken at the closing session of the G8 climate change conference in London.
Read Mr Blair’s speech in full
Thank you all for coming. It is a privilege to have you in our country.
I very much wanted to come along to this dialogue on climate change - ‘Clean Energy and Sustainable Development’ - in order to set out for you why I think this is a very important moment in meeting the challenge of climate change in a way that can bring the world together. And I know from the conversations that I have had that you have managed to come to some good outcomes today from your meeting, and I congratulate you on that. I just wanted very briefly to try and put this in what I see is the context.
There are a number of things happening at the present time. The first is that the evidence on climate change is getting stronger, and not weaker. The second thing is that even people, if they doubt, and there can be uncertainties about this or that aspect of climate change, but even those that have such doubts can see that there are real issues to do with energy security, energy supply, the diversity of energy sources. The third thing that is happening is that round the world, not just as a result of Kyoto, but also as a result of concerns that people have within their own countries, there is an increasing emphasis amongst the private sector and business on how they come into this climate change dialogue and how they are part of it. And let’s be very clear about this, the solution will come in the end, in part at least, through the private sector developing the technology and the science able to make a difference. Then I think the next thing that is happening is that throughout the world there are countries, and for example states in the United States of America, who are taking action on their own, they are concerned about this, they are worried and they are trying to develop their own strategies about it. And yet the final thing one has got to say about the present situation is that with all that happening, with people feeling the science is becoming more certain, with energy security and supply an additional issue, with companies and states trying to take action to meet it, we are left with the situation where over Kyoto frankly there has been division.
Now it has been extremely important to have the Kyoto Treaty and to have it come into force, and in particular some of the mechanisms associated with it are absolutely essential, but in the end this will never be dealt with properly unless we manage to find the answer to this problem - how do we combine the need, not just for developed economies to grow, but in particular for the developing world to grow and the need for people, through economic growth, to lift themselves out of poverty, to improve their living standards, with a proper responsible attitude to the environment? And the blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge, but all economies know that the only sensible long term way of developing is to do it on a sustainable basis.
And so the question really is this. How do we bring people together and get them working, one on developing the science and technology that is necessary to tackle this problem; two, on doing it on a basis that is compatible with economic growth; and three, further down the line, how do we get the right framework beyond 2012 to enable us to carry on taking action in respect of this, and hopefully to take action on a more unified basis? And the purpose of the G8 dialogue, the G8 plus 5, was to say how do we manage to bring people together and without the very formal structures of negotiation see what possibilities there are, what avenues there are to explore for agreement in the future, so that people don’t feel that pressure of international negotiation that sometimes can be helpful, sometimes frankly can be unhelpful, but nonetheless they are able in a frank and open way to explore what the possibilities are for action.
And I think from the briefing I have had of the conclusions that you have come to, particularly on the work to do with low carbon technology and how we exchange and transfer technology, you have made significant progress. And this is in the end the only way that we are going to do it. I recall recently when as President of the European Union I was in China and India, and in both countries I met a very clear recognition of the responsibility for the environment, but I also met leaders who perfectly naturally and correctly were saying we have hundreds of millions of our people still living in poverty and we need to be able to lift their living standards. What you cannot do is, having grown yourselves and got your economy with the living standards of your people high, then tell us that we cannot grow, but we must constrain our growth in the interests of the world community.
Now that, I think, is actually a clue to what we need to do. What we need to do is to try to develop the right partnership, and then the right framework, so that we are developing the science and technology that we need, that we are doing this in a way that allows us then to transfer that technology and share it between developed and developing world, and that we start to look at the types of strategies and how we can help each other, that will enable us to solve this problem long term.
I am actually optimistic that it can be done, but I think the preliminary work will need, in part at least, to take place in this informal type of dialogue, of course within then the formal UN process, which is essential. But the more that we can agree on where the areas are we need to concentrate our effort, and the more we can cooperate and work in partnership to do it, the more likely we are to find a solution. And I have a very clear and simple belief about this issue. We can debate this or that aspect of climate change, but the reality is that most people now accept our climate is indeed subject to change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. If we are going to carry on growing, and we will, because no country is going to forfeit its right to economic growth, we have to find a way of doing it sustainably. If that is true, we have to manage that process co-operatively, and if we do manage it co-operatively then we can get the gains and the benefits far more quickly than up to now people have anticipated.
So what this is about is trying to put such an informal partnership in place so that it helps underpin the formal infrastructure of negotiation and dialogue and debate.
One final thing I would say. There is an aspect to this debate that at a certain level people can almost trade clichés in it, but the moment we get to specific frameworks, and in particular talk of targets, then people get very nervous and very worried, and the reason for that is perfectly simple and we should be open and honest about it. It is because people fear some external force imposes an internal target that is going to restrict your economic growth. I think in the world after 2012 we need to find a better and more sensitive set of mechanisms to deal with this problem, because we cannot develop this science and technology unless the private sector gets a framework within which its directions are clear. I think from my conversations right across the world with the private sector, and most particularly incidentally in Washington with some of the leading energy producers there, my view of this is that the private sector is happy to be involved, and we can see from companies like our own, BP and in other regards how this debate is developing within the private sector, but at some point they are going to need the framework within which the incentives are very clear for them.
Now that is some way, I think, down the line, but what I hope is that the dialogue that we have, which I know is going to be followed up, and I think very helpfully our Russian colleagues have made the issue to do with energy a key part of the G8 agenda for next year, but I think that if we deal with this in the right way, and have this informal mechanism running alongside the more formal structures, then I think that we can find a way of meeting what I believe is the clear desire of our people in whatever country they are, which is to find the way of combining rising living standards with responsibility to protect our environment and hand on to a future generation an environment in a better shape than we found it.
Now that is what we are all trying to do. And as I say, I thank you all very much indeed for coming here today and for being part of this dialogue, I think it has been important. I remain optimistic that with the right dialogue, with the right group of people, and I think we have that, then we can build from this into something very, very special indeed. And Mexico has agreed to host the next dialogue - I am delighted with that.
And once again all of you, many, many thanks for coming here.
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