RESPONSE TO BLAIR'S SPEECH AT UNGASS

London, 23 June 1997

BLAIR'S GREEN CRUSADE HAS TO BEGIN AT HOME Welcoming Blair's commitment to a push for a one fifth reduction in carbon dioxide, Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Matthew Spencer said, "This commitment is good but the litmus test of this will be his attitude to the fossil fuels in his own backyard."

To keep within safe limits for climate change identified by climate science, only one quarter of existing fossil fuel reserves can ever be burnt. Despite this, exploration for new oil is being undertaken in the Atlantic waters around the UK.

Matthew Spencer: "How can Blair hope to fulfil his commitment to protect the climate when his government is encouraging the search for new oil? If he really wants to give a lead to the US he could demonstrate that industrial economies such as the UK's don't have to be wedded to continued fossil fuel expansion."

"Blair has got to live up to his rhetoric. He cannot continue to acknowledge the symptoms of a dangerous energy system, expressed as greenhouse gas pollution, and ignore the cause which is fossil fuel consumption. He will be accused of hypocrisy if at the same time as trying to curb the car, his Government promotes an expansion of fossil fuel supplies and encourages a wild-west brawl for new oil reserves in the Atlantic Frontier."

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