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Tony Blair is in search of solutions

To reduce CO2 emissions, “we must have the courage to share our knowledge” with China and India, Blair says.

Photo: World Economic Forum/Andy Mettler

As far as Tony Blair is concerned, the economic crisis has one crucial upside. Many countries are spending a great deal of money to stimulate their economies, the former British prime minister told participants at a climate change conference in The Hague organized by the Dutch Post Code Lottery, and much of it is going toward major new infrastructure projects. "That makes this a perfect time to invest in the development of new technology for clean energy," Blair says. "If the economy picks up again and we do nothing, we will remain dependent on an extremely uncertain fuel supply. … We need to develop alternative clean-energy sources. In the end, humanity has never been confronted with a problem it cannot solve. So let’s focus on the solutions."

In the run-up to the United Nations climate treaty negotiations at the end of this year in Copenhagen, Blair is devoting more time to getting a deal. He sees new technologies as the first step toward behavior changes that will, in turn, reduce CO2 emissions. Behavioral change must come from the West, of course, but Blair is convinced it’s just as important for Western countries to help nations like China and India adopt green tech. "We must have the courage to share our knowledge," Blair says. "If the West makes technological discoveries in the area of clean energy, it should absolutely share them with China and India, and never use them as an economic weapon. After all, what good will it do if America and Europe manage to reach their goals for reducing their CO2 emissions but China does not?"

Blair admits, jokingly, that some might think his message is too little, too late. "A former politician who comes to talk about solutions. That quickly begs the question: Why didn’t you come up with those solutions when you really had some power" to implement them? Blair doesn’t see solutions coming from the political arena, but from the world of business. Entrepreneurs "are the ones creating the change we need," he tells Ode. "It isn’t so much about the people running the [climate] campaign but really about the business people with courage and ideas who are the first to find the solutions we need."