New worries about energy security may motivate the United States to join international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming, according to British Prime Minister Tony Blair—something environmental concerns have failed to do.

Speaking today to a conference on climate change and governance in Wellington, New Zealand, Blair said the United States may decide to develop more renewable energy sources to increase the security of its energy supplies.

"It may well be that America comes into this for reasons as much to do with energy security as with greenhouse gas emissions and the environment," Blair said. "In Europe, energy security is now a major, major question. These two issues can be brought together—energy security and climate change."

Speaking over a video link from Auckland, Blair told conference delegates that moving toward more sustainable energy supplies would require a broad international framework and urgent action to address climate change—an effort that must include all of the world’s major economies and developing nations.

Beyond the Kyoto Protocol
He said the world community would need to go much further than the Kyoto Protocol, the UN-sponsored agreement forged in 1997, which calls for reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. Both the United States and Australia refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and the agreement exempted developing nations such as China and India.

"I believe we can't wait five years to get a new agreement. I think we have got to do it more quickly than that," Blair said. “That agreement has to have at its heart a goal of stabilizing climate change."

Blair said the upcoming 2006 meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) nations in St Petersburg, Russia, and the G8-plus-five meeting in Mexico in September both would provide opportunities to encourage international cooperation on climate change and more aggressive development of renewable energy.

"We have to have the agreement not just of the signatories of the Kyoto treaty but all the major economies now and in the future – and that needs, in particular, the United States, China and India."

Climate Change Happening Faster Than Expected
Blair cited recent signs of accelerated global warming, such as the rapidly melting polar ice caps, and said people in Europe are becoming increasingly concerned about these visible effects of climate change.

"The science is sufficiently clear—and in my view is pretty much certain—that it would be deeply irresponsible not to take action," he said. "Most people understand this is a major issue and they want governments to act. I think the problem is: how?"