‘Britain can’t stop the climate crisis’ – shocking stuff, but Tony Blair is right

The former PM’s take on Labour’s eco pledges was so heretical, writes John Rentoul, that Andrew Marr’s jaw dropped...

Blair’s dissent was deft and typically phrased (PA)

Andrew Marr was clearly taken aback. He observed to Tony Blair during their recent conversation that “climate change is a bigger issue than artificial intelligence”. This is, after all, nothing but a statement of the obvious, the cross-party consensus – that nothing is more important than the climate crisis.

Blair didn’t agree. His dissent was deft and typically phrased, appearing to agree with the assumptions of his interviewer, with a “but” inserted before taking the subject in a different direction: “Well, it’s the single biggest global challenge, right, and Britain should play its part in that. But its part frankly is going to be less to do with Britain’s emissions. I mean, one year’s rise in China’s emissions would outscore the whole of Britain’s emissions for a year.”

One year’s rise in China’s emissions did indeed once “outscore the whole of Britain’s emissions for a year”, in the year to June 2021, although there is some evidence that Chinese emissions may have stabilised since.