Blair calls for 2020 carbon targets for developed world

Former prime minister Tony Blair has called for tough carbon emission targets for 2020

Former prime minister Tony Blair today closed the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi by calling on the developed world to agree to tough "interim" carbon emission targets for 2020 at climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year.

Blair said that while all countries the bulk of the obligation for ensuring that target is met should fall on developed economies, and as such they should demonstrate their commitment to tackling climate change by signing up to a separate interim target for 2020.

He argued that "an interim target for the developed world would send a clear signal" to emerging economies that the West is willing to invest in cutting emissions, amking it easier for negotiators to convince large emerging economies such as China and India to sign up to the agreement.

Blair did not say at what level the interim targets should be set, but any discussion on the topic that does take place in Copenhagen is likely to be based on the EU's commitment to cut emissions by 20 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.

The former prime minister, who now lectures frequently on climate change issues, went on to highlight the fact that large emerging economies such as China and India will continue to invest heavily in coal power and that the development and transfer of technologies such as carbon capture and storage must therefore form a central component of any global climate change deal.

"The UN needs a lead from the major emitters, and the developed world must share the technologies they acquire with the developing world – these partnerships are vital," he said.

Blair also said that there was an urgent need to cut the cost of new low carbon technologies, warning that "poorer countries who we are asking to consume differently will not do so if it is too expensive."

He echoed calls from financiers earlier in the conference for reform of the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offsetting scheme, which allows developed countries to invest in emissions reductions projects in the developing world but has been criticised as inefficient.

Blair also reiterated the views of other politicans at the conference, predicting that investment in alternative energy could stimulate economic growth, rather than prevent it, and warning that the global recession should not be used as an excuse to slow the green agenda.

"It is now that we must act," he said. "We must not set to one side the challenge of global warming but come to meet it."