Blair Plots His Next Step
LONDON, Feb. 14, 2007 — -- What kind of work do you look for if you are a lame duck British prime minister, unpopular in your own country for supporting a U.S.-led war and for failing to convince your public that health services, transport and race relations will all be just fine some day?
Oh, and if those old rumors (planted by friends?) that you wouldn't turn your nose up at becoming secretary-general of the United Nations are now irrelevant in light of the new U.N. leadership?
If you are Tony Blair, apparently you will consider a new career as a sort of international crusader for the Kyoto protocol.
According to a report in today's Independent newspaper of London, after Tony Blair steps down as prime minister this summer, he will devote himself to fighting global warming by addressing the U.S. opposition to the Kyoto accord, which has been signed by other nations, including Britain.
Adam Matthews, secretary-general of GLOBE (Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment), a nongovernmental international forum for parliamentarians to discuss global warming, told ABC News, "Mr. Blair's support is significant. He has a lot of credibility on this issue. And he may work on this issue when he steps down as well."
Prime Minister Blair's office at 10 Downing Street confirmed that in the years ahead, he will work with GLOBE to improve the environment.
Prime Minister Blair's Secretary of State for Environment David Miliband, a Blair ally, spoke at a GLOBE conference in Washington today to call for a change in United States, after President Bush leaves office, in favor of a sort of Kyoto-2 agreement on climate change.
The United States, China and India are widely considered the three biggest polluters in the global warming debate, and all three rejected the Kyoto guidelines on reducing global warming pollution.
The GLOBE forum is one of the few places where U.S. senators can roll up their sleeves and talk about climate change with Indian and Chinese politicians in spite of the reluctance of the White House to take part in such dialogues.
Blair has posted a message of encouragement on the GLOBE Web site, which states in part, "legislators have a crucial role in raising awareness, encouraging debate in their constituencies and, of course, holding their leaders to account."
Stephen Byers, a former Blair Cabinet minister and an ally, is quoted by the Independent. "Irrespective of the view from the White House, the political mood in America is changing. We need to seize this opportunity to begin discussions now aimed at bringing America alongside other countries in fighting climate change."
Blair is well placed to shift his political legacy away from the critics' appellation of him as "Bush's Iraq Poodle" to that of international statesman working on an issue upon which much of the world agrees.
And he may not have to work very hard at it because some pro-Kyoto campaigners believe the tide is already changing in America.
"I don't think that this is difficult to work with the U.S," Matthews told ABC. "The American position is changing. We have seen a change in the engagement of the Senate."
If Blair does try to take on a high-profile role in the U.S. debate on Kyoto and global warming, he will start with the advantage of being hugely popular among Americans. That popularity comes largely from his unwavering support for the president in a time of war, and from his charismatic public speeches.
Ironically he may find a new base of support among some environmental activists who hated him for going to war in Iraq. But it seems unlikely that he will convert all of his former critics, many of whom are expected to accuse him of embracing an apple-pie issue like improving the environment simply because, they claim, he is a political opportunist.
A spokesman for the prime minister told ABC News, "it is not fair to say that the prime minister's interest in this issue is recent. He has had a very long-term interest in this issue."
Additional reporting by Benjamin Barnier