'Environmental' Tories slam Blair over climate change failures

Labour has squandered the chance to face up to the challenge of climate change and Tony Blair must bear the consequences for failing to persuade the US to curb its CO2 emissions, Tory leader Michael Howard has said.

In a speech in London today, the Conservative leader said that his party would place environmental concerns and climate change – one of "mankind's greatest challenges" - at the heart of party philosophy.

Asserting his green credentials, Mr Howard recalled that he had "personally persuaded" former US President George Bush to sign up to the Climate Change Convention.

But this ability to persuade the White House to sign up to environmental protocols has been lacking in the Labour administration, the Opposition leader said.

"We have a privileged relationship with the USA, which leaves us best placed to persuade them into the international fold. We assume the presidency of the G8 and the EU next year," he said.

"My concern is that we are squandering this opportunity because of our failure to follow up bold rhetoric with action that inspires trust."

Mr Howard said he was calling on the Government to lobby Americans into signing up to the Kyoto Accord on climate change: "Like the war on terror, or the drive for responsible free trade, climate change is an international issue that depends on co-operation. No one can opt out of the fight against global warming. That means persuading the Americans to join the battle. America generates a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, yet has only 4 per cent of the world's population. Their involvement is essential if we are to have effective action. It can be done."

Mr Howard went on to describe Labour's approach to transport and the environment as "a jumble of contradictions", its policy on renewable energy as "beginning and ending with onshore wind farms", and its handling of EU environmental legislation as "unbelievably incompetent".

He added that, while Britain would meet its obligations under the 2001 Kyoto agreement, it would do so based on the work of the Tory party which led the ‘dash for gas' in the 1990s.

A Tory government would phase out the use of hydroflurocarbons used in fridges and air conditioning by 2014, and would trigger a "fresh drive" for improved energy efficiency, with cuts in Stamp Duty on domestic property sales, Mr Howard concluded.

(gmcg/mb)