Blair presses Bush to act on global warming

Tony Blair is persuading President George Bush to launch a new international initiative to fight global warming. The move, in part an attempt by Mr Blair to shrug off the label as the President's "poodle", is the result of a series of behind-the-scenes meetings between high-level officials, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The two leaders are close to agreement on combating climate change at the next two G8 meetings of the world's most powerful leaders.

The Prime Minister is ready for the Government to challenge the Bush administration more strongly than before on the need for international action.

The move comes as the President, renowned for his efforts to kill off the Kyoto Protocol, is facing increasing domestic pressure over global warming. Mr Blair decided last month to make reviving the international effort on global warming a major theme of the G8 summit in Britain next year, and to try to persuade Mr Bush to put it high on the agenda at this year's meeting.

Last month, Professor Sir David King - Mr Blair's chief scientific adviser - led a delegation to Washington to work out the details with senior members of the Bush administration. The President will concentrate in this year's summit on how to develop new technologies.

Senior scientists and environmentalists consulted by Sir David in Washington warned him that Mr Blair would have to go far beyond merely endorsing these technologies if he wanted to avoid being seen as the Mr Bush's "poodle". They stressed Britain must insist that more than enough is already known about the dangers of global warming to demand immediate action to cut the pollution that causes it.

Both Houses of Congress have called on the administration to reopen climate negotiations. Fourteen US states are forcing utilities to generate some of their electricity from renewable sources; and even the coal and oil industries are beginning to press for early decisions.