Latest News

Tony Blair: China’s villages and cities are leading the way on climate change

Less than a year after launching the 1000 village initiative with Jet Li, Tony Blair praised the remarkable progress of China’s cities and villages in bringing sustainable energy to tens of thousands of people across the country.

Speaking at the Eco-Forum Guiyang 2010, Tony Blair said that China is “leading the world out of the global economic crisis” with an ever more powerful role for the clean economy in power generation, the car industry and energy efficient lighting. He said:

“LED bulbs can cut more than half the energy consumption needed to light our streets, homes and businesses, which at the moment accounts for nearly a fifth of all the electricity used around the world. Leadership by the Chinese, through clear polices and incentives, will mean that 10 cities will install 10,000 LED bulbs, dwarfing efforts elsewhere and creating demand that drives the creation of new markets, new businesses and new jobs.”

Tony Blair, who founded the Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative three years ago, to help facilitate global action on climate change, said that whilst China’s efforts were right and necessary, global action was still required. Addressing the Forum, whose theme is “Green Development – Actions We’re Taking”, he said:

“The theme of this year’s Guiyang Forum, is absolutely right. We don’t need more slogans or calls to do the impossible. We need to take what is possible, do it and build on it. In that way we multiply our own efforts and accelerate our progress to a low carbon future and green economy. That is the practical road to the future and we should take it.”

During the keynote speech, Tony Blair outlined four principles that should lead global attempts to make a difference:

An emphasis on sustainable growth

“We cannot expect counties like China and India, still with many millions living in poverty, to slow the pace of their development.  They need to develop. We must search for ways of doing it sustainably.  Likewise, to be frank, people of developed nations are not going to give up the benefits of higher living standards, travel and mobility that characterise today’s world.”

Science and technology

Tony Blair said: “It is the innovation that they bring – from electric vehicles to cleaner ways of power generation through to LED lighting – that will square the circle of the desire for increased consumption and the need for a green economy.  The purpose of a global agreement and of national action plans is to create the incentives for the private sector to invent, commercialise and market the new ways of green living...Government can help in basic research and seed funding; but the private sector will lead the way; as again many Chinese companies are showing.”

Co-operation on technology

“We should find ways of co-operation so as to maximize the spread and speed of technological advance.  There are huge opportunities in everything from nuclear power, to carbon capture and storage; but we will hasten the pace of action if technology is shared and the possibilities of collaboration properly expanded. In this respect, Copenhagen did make significant progress.”

Use the solutions available to us now

“There are many already established ways we can limit climate change; like energy efficiency that can account for 25% of the change needed; and of course deforestation where again China’s 40 million hectares programme is a great example of what we can do.”

To read the full speech, click here

Having been the first major head of government to bring climate change to the top of the international political agenda at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005, Tony Blair is now leading the 'Breaking the Climate Deadlock' initiative, a strategic partnership with The Climate Group, through which he is working with world leaders to bring consensus on a new and comprehensive international climate policy framework.

The Climate Group is an independent NGO working internationally with business and government leaders to advance practical policies and technologies necessary to cut global emissions and drive a prosperous low carbon economy.