29 March 2006abc.netReporter: Peter Lewis
MARK COLVIN: Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for a new international agreement to combat climate change.Mr Blair says that unlike the Kyoto protocol, the new framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions must include all developed and developing nations.He was speaking in Auckland after addressing an international conference on climate change, as New Zealand Correspondent Peter Lewis reports.PETER LEWIS: Tony Blair's the first British Prime Minister in nearly 50 years to visit New Zealand.HELEN CLARK: We meet reasonably frequently, but it's always wonderful to have a friend and colleague from a country as close to New Zealand as the United Kingdom is and has been over a very long time, come to one's country and be able to see something of what we have to offer and hear our perspectives from our home base.PETER LEWIS: The New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark hosted formal talks on a range of bilateral issues today, including trade and security, even working visas for Kiwis in Britain, but not Iraq - a war New Zealand has consistently opposed.TONY BLAIR: Probably this is not as well-known as it should be, but the dialogue that we've had on policy issues has been very extensive over these past few years. We've now got a chance to formalise it. I mean, there's a lot that we can do together, and the dialogue that's already happening at a policy level will be deepened as a result of that.PETER LEWIS: But the major focus of Tony Blair's 24-hour visit to Auckland was climate change, and he had a message for his previous hosts in Canberra, and others who'd opted out of the Kyoto agreement.TONY BLAIR: Without the participation of America and the emerging economies of China and India, there isn't going to be a solution. And what is necessary is to get an international agreement that has got a framework, with a stabilisation goal in it, so that we set a very clear objective for everyone to aim at, and then you have to develop the science, the technology and the changes in behaviour necessary in order to meet that goal. But it won't be done unless there is a development of the technology that I think needs to be as revolutionary almost as the internet was for information technology. And we've got to do that.Now, when I say it's important we get America into this deal, in my view that's kind of a statement of the obvious. It is, because without America in it, and without China and India in it, nothing's going to happen.PETER LEWIS: He says such an all-embracing agreement could, in future, give businesses the certainty to invest in the creation of new technological answers to combat climate change.TONY BLAIR: The point about climate change, and I think, again, we've got to be very frank about this, I don't believe - and this is my view - no government is going to end up sacrificing its economic growth, because the electoral pushback would just be so strong. The fact is we don't need to, however, if we develop the science and the technology and the changes of behaviour that allow us to grow sustainably. And we can do that, but it does require an international agreement, because otherwise you will find a situation, and we found this when we introduced the climate change levy in the UK, what industry said to us at the time was, look, you, Britain, are going to be doing this climate change levy, but the rest of Europe isn't, so you're going to put us at a competitive disadvantage. Now, we overcame that opposition, and I think today people accept it was the right thing to do. But, you know, we shouldn't be foolish about this, if you're a government sitting there and you've got to go and get elected again, you're going to think twice about reducing your own competitiveness if other people aren't in the deal.MARK COLVIN: Tony Blair ending that report form our New Zealand Correspondent, Peter Lewis.
