10 DOWNING STREET LONDON SW1 2AA 19 June 1997

Dear Peter

Thank you for your letter of 7 May about oil development in the Atlantic and climate change, and for your kind words on our Election victory.

The Government fully shares your concerns about the threat posed by climate' change. I will be making this clear when I address the United Nations Conference in New York later this month. We intend to lead the fight against global warming, through our target of a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, and our determination to work for a successful outcome at Kyoto in December.

We are also fully seized of the need to step up our efforts at home to lessen the impact of fossil fuels on the environment. John Prescott has already announced our plans to develop an integrated transport policy. We are committed to promoting cleaner, more efficient production and use of energy, including greater energy efficiency, a new drive to develop combined heat and power schemes, and greater use of renewable energy sources. That includes solar power which has much promise for the future, particularly in growing international markets, although we must be realistic about what this might deliver in the short term in the United Kingdom. We will, therefore, be looking for significant improvements in domestic and industrial energy efficiency and from the transport sector.

In this way, we are determined to move the United Kingdom more quickly down the path of sustainable development. However, we must also recognise the need for a strong and competitive United Kingdom economy. That will require the use of fossiI fuels now and into the next century. To meet the global challenge of climate change we need to work together with our European and international partners, both to set tough Greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and to agree measures such as the development of alternative sources of energy which are a vital part of the long term solution. I believe that is the way forward rather than unilateral action. On your specific argument for stopping the development of the Atlantic oilfields, if we did that, demand for oil would be met from production elsewhere in the world at a cost to the United Kingdom in terms of jobs and balance of payments, and possibly to the global environment.

You also raised a point on Enviromental Impact Assessments. John Battle will be replying to you separately on this matter.

On climate change and other issues of sustainable development, I believe the Government and Greenpeace share many of the same aims. I look forward to working constructively together to achieve a sustainable future for the United Kingdom.

Yours ever

Tony