THE KYOTO RETRENCHMENT BEGINS:

Tony Blair appeared last night to undermine more than 15 years of climate change negotiations when he signalled a shift away from a target-based approach to cutting greenhouse emissions. Speaking at the end of the first day of a summit in London of environment and energy ministers, the prime minister said that legally binding targets to reduce pollution made people “very nervous and very worried”.

He said when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, the world would need a more sensitive framework for tackling global warming.

Since it’s quite clear that the United States will never ratify Kyoto, and Europe will never actually abide by it, it’s time for some rethinking.