Blair In Jaws Of Climate Dilemma - Drop Bush Or Abandon Pretensions?

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LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - "British Prime Minister Tony Blair is trapped in a dilemma of his own creation over saving the planet from global warming, analysts say. Blair has put climate change at the heart of his year-long presidency of the Group of Eight industrial nations, but his efforts to get radical action agreed at next month's G8 summit in Scotland are being repeatedly torpedoed by the United States.

Environmental campaigners say this leaves Blair with a stark choice -- either drop U.S. President George W. Bush and get a strong agreement with the other G8 members or stay with him, get a weak deal and be blamed for missing a crucial opportunity. "There is a train wreck coming," said Jennifer Morgan, climate change expert at the WWF. "The twin targets of trying to get something done on climate change and getting George Bush to sign up to it just don't go together," she told Reuters. "If Blair praises Bush on climate change on any account and Bush hasn't moved at all, it will signal to the world that the Bush agenda on climate change is OK."

It would be a painful choice for Blair who has made stopping climate change a personal project but who has also identified himself closely with Bush and the transatlantic alliance. A leaked draft dated June 14 of the final communique due from the summit to be held at the Gleneagles hotel near Edinburgh from July 6-8 reveals the extent of efforts to keep the Americans on board.

There are no targets nor timetables for action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and all references in an earlier draft to dollar funds for research have been removed. An introductory paragraph has moved the statement "our world is warming" into square brackets, meaning that even the phenomenon of climate change is under question and that the wording may not appear in the final text."

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16549712.htm