Los Angeles – British Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced an agreement Monday to bypass the Bush administration and work together to explore ways of fighting global warming.
They agreed to collaborate on research into cleaner-burning fuels and technologies and look into the possibility of setting up a system whereby polluters could buy and sell the right to emit greenhouse gases. The idea is to use market forces and market incentives to curb pollution.
Environmental groups questioned the value of the agreement, calling it little more than a symbolic gesture.
California is looking to cut carbon dioxide – a byproduct of coal, oil and gasoline combustion – and other heat-trapping gases that scientists say are warming the planet. President Bush has rejected the idea of ordering such cuts.
“This is an agreement to share ideas and information. It is not a treaty,” said Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn. “Right now, all we are doing is talking about sharing ideas.”
“It will be markets, not governments, that will decide which technologies are chosen in the future,” said a Blair spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, in line with government policy.
“Governments can give clear, credible, long-term signals to the market which will enable companies to develop the technology that will result in cleaner technology, more energy efficient technology,” he said.
Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the agreement was “a wonderful amplification” of talks last year between the president and Blair.
“It’s just another step forward,” she said. “This is a way to share ideas, what works and what doesn’t work.”
For Schwarzenegger, a Republican who is running for a full term in November, the agreement comes at a time when he has been trying to distance himself from Bush in this mostly Democratic state.
