Tony Blair, oddly, just downplayed the importance of political will in the United States, and then, in an aside, said he thinks “the political will is there.”
I think he’s been talking to George Bush too much. Building American political will is the key challenge facing us if we want to see a global mitigation regime emerge.
Still, the topic of the plenary is “Economic Growth in the Face of Resource Scarcity and Climate Change,” and on that point, Blair pointed out that the U.K.’s economy has grown en route to meeting its Kyoto goals. Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, explained how such growth has also happened in her own country. Both encouraged government action in the United States and worldwide. So there is good news to report.
