Moonage SpaceDream

Britain wants tighter limits on greenhouse gases by Europe and other rich countries as a first step toward establishing a global carbon trading system to help reduce the cost of climate change.

The main argument of a British report published on Monday is that the benefits of determined worldwide steps to tackle global warming will massively outweigh the costs.

But the report’s author, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern, concludes that ignoring climate change could lead to economic upheaval on the scale of the 1930s depression.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the findings as "a wake up call to every country in the world."

"The report is clear: We are heading towards catastrophic tipping points in our climate unless we act," Blair wrote in an article for the Sun newspaper. "Creating cleaner energy whilst using less has to be the key."

Finance minister Gordon Brown will argue at the launch of the report that harnessing the power of markets is the best way to find new methods to curb the output of polluting gases, Treasury officials said.…..

Brown will also announce on Monday that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore who created a stir this year with his climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, will become an adviser to him on environmental issues, Treasury officials said.

Now, I don’t have a problem with the basic premise of what they’re wanting to do.  I have always felt that the private market will drive the move to more efficient, read cleaner, fuel sources.  They acknowledge that by mimicking the US Clear Skies initiative.  However, the quickest way to generate unneeded opposition to these efforts is to politicize it and make claims that are not substantiated.  Which, is exactly what Al Gore has been doing with An Inconvenient Truth and trashing Bush every chance he gets.

Technorati Tags: Global Warming