TONY Blair will today give warning that people on both sides of the Atlantic will have to accept radical changes in their lifestyles to achieve significant cutbacks in greenhouse gases, which are responsible for global warming.
By George Jones and Charles Clover in New York
TONY Blair will today give warning that people on both sides of the Atlantic will have to accept radical changes in their lifestyles to achieve significant cutbacks in greenhouse gases, which are responsible for global warming. One of the most significant changes would be a curb on the use of private cars,
His comments will be seen as a strong hint that Labour's first Budget in 10 days' time will contain new "green" taxes and measures to get people to leave their cars at home. It will also be a calculated rebuke to the United States, which is resisting European pressure over taxes on petrol and aviation fuel.
At a special session of the United Nations in New York - generally referred to as Earth Summit II - Mr Blair is expected to give warning of the failure to tackle global warming, saying sea levels would rise by a metre by the end of the 21st century if emissions continued to rise unchecked.
He will tell the UN: "The biggest responsibility falls on those countries with the biggest emissions. We in Europe have put our cards on the table. It is time for the special pleading to stop and others to follow suit." The growing demand for action to curb global warming caused the biggest dispute at a summit of eight industrial nations in Denver, Colorado, with the United States resisting pressure to follow Britain and other EU countries in setting firm targets for the reduction of carbon dioxide.
At the summit Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, named America and Canada as failing to share Europe's tough approach on global warming.
He said: "At the moment the biggest single problem is that the American public has not yet grasped that if it continues with its present lifestyle, then it is going to make it impossible for its children or grandchildren to enjoy the kind of environment and therefore the kind of lifestyle that the Americans have today.
"Nobody is going to ask them to embrace a life of poverty or a hair shirt, but there are other ways in which you can have a very good, advanced, enjoyable lifestyle, just as prosperous, just as rewarding, but you don't have to drive everywhere in a very large car with a very large petrol consumption."
After the on-camera bonhomie at Denver there remains a wide gulf between Britain and the United States, not only on climate but also on increasing aid for the developing world and on a forest convention.
Since Britain is, with Germany, one of the few countries expected to meet the target of stabilising fossil fuel emissions by the year 2000, set at the original Earth Summit in Rio five years ago, Mr Blair is widely seen as having both the moral high ground and the political influence to place pressure on the Americans to sign up to reductions.
The presence of so many British ministers in America this week, including Mr Blair, Mr Cook, Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Michael Meacher, Environment Minister, is being seen as evidence of that pressure.
Ministers are looking at a range of measures in Britain to cut emissions including higher duties on petrol, increased taxes on company cars, and higher annual road tax for "gas guzzlers".
The United States was understood to be prepared to accept "reductions" after it signed up to them in Berlin last year. Targets were due to be set later this year at a summit in Kyoto.
But the Clinton administration now says it cannot deliver reductions because of opposition from a conservative Congress. Environmentalists and developing countries are accusing it of "bad faith".
Sixty-one US Senators of all parties have said that they would veto any agreement the administration made at Kyoto if it did not contain agreement that developing countries would reduce their emissions at the same time. Such as a requirement was not expected in this round.
Sixty world leaders are expected to attend the UN special session, intended to review progress since Rio, but this is a problem for most of them since there has been much back-sliding on commitments made then, principally the promise of an increase in aid to the developing world.
The main controversies this week are expected over:
Forests: since Rio, where this was a difficult issue, the EU, Canada and Malaysia have come to support a global forest convention. Britain argues that this would stop uncontrolled destruction of primary forest. Environmental groups, who supported a convention at Rio, are split with most opposing one now, fearing that it would become a "Loggers' Charter". The United States argues that forests are a national issue, despite their function in regulating the global climate.
A tax on aviation fuel: the US is against this but the EU sees it as a way of tapping a new source of revenue, which might allow Europe to increase aid to the developing world.
Aid: aid has declined since 1992 from 0.34 per cent of gross national product to 0.27 per cent last year. Miss Short, who arrived last night, will be under pressure to sign a commitment to increase handsomely the aid budget for environmental projects.
Funding for a deserts convention - which Britain long opposed - will also be a point of contention since it is widely supported by African countries.
Fresh water: one of the few initiatives to be agreed already is a global strategy to tackle dirty drinking water in the world's poorest nations and water conservation in the world's richest. Ministers will be under pressure to explain how it will work.
