Tony Blair to Lead International Campaign on Climate Change. (March 15, 2008)

Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair is working to prepare a blueprint for an agreement to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2050.

He says he has the backing of the White House, the UN and Europe, including UK's current prime minister, Gordon Brown.

The initiative was disclosed yesterday as the prime minister, Gordon Brown, launched a campaign to get Europe to slash taxes on "green goods" such as environmentally friendly fridges, telling government leaders the move would be a powerful lever in the fight against global warming.

The Guardian reports the initiative was made public on Thursday when Dr Brown, "launched a campaign to get Europe to slash taxes on 'green goods' such as environmentally friendly fridges, telling government leaders the move would be a powerful lever in the fight against global warming".

Mr Blair, who has been working on the project since he left office at the end of June last year says an interim report will be released to the G8 group of industrialised nations this summer.

He told The Guardian: "This is extremely urgent. A 50% cut by 2050 has to be a central component of this. We have to try this year to get that agreed, because the moment you do agree that, then you have something for everyone to focus upon. We need a true and proper global deal, and that needs to include America and China... [Currently] there is a deadlock. Everyone is agreed where we want to get to, but unless you agree on the framework for getting there, you are left with a process and not a result. The fact of the matter is that if we do not take substantial action over the next two years, then by 2020 we will be thinking seriously about adaptation rather than prevention.

    "People often say to me there are a lot of climate change plans out there, and I say 'how many of them are politically doable?' So the experts are providing technical knowledge, and specialist insight, but what I am trying to do is guide it politically.

    "Essentially what everyone has agreed is that climate change is a serious problem, it is man-made, we require a global deal, that there should be a substantial cut in emissions at the heart of it, and this global deal should involve everyone, including in particular America on the one hand and China on the other, so it is the developed and developing world. The question is what is the framework that gets everyone in the deal

    "The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that we are not going to get the action necessary by telling people not to consume. The Chinese and Indian governments are determined to grow their economies. They have hundreds of millions of very poor people - they are going to industrialise, they are going to raise their living standards, and quite right too."

According to The Guardian's report following the tabling of the June  interim report Mr Blair's team "intends to set out the continuing differences between the big countries next summer, then produce economic models to show that fears over the sacrifices required can be overcome."