Blair Faces Revolt over Carbon Cuts

The Queen's Speech is tomorrow, Tony Blair's final kick at the can, legislation-wise.

Unfortunately, Blair is still refusing to implement annual legally-binding targets for carbon emissions. It could lead to a heavy Commons revolt on the issue.

The opposition parties and more than 200 Labour MPs have demanded that the Climate Change Bill include a promise to reduce C02 emissions by 3 per cent each year. Without a compromise, the Government looks certain to trigger a rebellion on a scale that could wipe out its majority.

Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, who tabled the motion demanding yearly reductions, said Mr Blair's preference for targets over a longer period such as 10 years was a mistake. It could mean action being delayed until the seventh or eighth year and then the target being abandoned as impossible.

It makes little sense: his rhetoric about global warming and climate change doesn't match the actions, the minimum actions needed, to deal with it.