Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose influence can still be felt reverberating through the infrastructures he set in place as Head of State and chief of New Labour, has delivered a statement of sinister ambiguity to the BBC, on the question of carbon emissions and global warming. On the subject of the upcoming G8 summit, and by extension, the Copenhagen climate change talks, he stated that,

"This is now at the stage where it's been taken out of the hands of campaigners and into the hands of the people who are going to have to get the job done".

Something about his statement reflects a presumably not deliberate notion that the creation of policy is not a matter of negotiating, arbitrating and tailoring  ideas amongst a number of qualified sources both inside and outside of government, but that the role of the politician is to take on board - and then dislocate - the thoughts and the role of the campaigner.

What he is indirectly suggesting is that the campaigner acts as some sort of impetus, a lighter to the touch paper, and that from there, the work of policy - ultimately what shapes the outcome of the issue - is undertaken by politics only, as it is "taken out of the hands" of those who campaign and lobby government figures.

The Role of the Environmental Campaigner Before Copenhagen

Tony Blair was talking to the BBC about the duty of politicians in the lead up to the G8 summit on Wednesday, at the summit itself, and later, at the Copenhagen climate change summit in December. Is Blair essentially saying, then, that the role of environmental campaigners, in deciding the best way to approach a carbon emissions reduction policy worldwide, in providing sustainable, renewable energy, or in tackling climate change in general, is now defunct?

If that is the meaning behind the implication, then it constitutes a very worrying example of the democratic process and the propagation of free ideas. It would imply that there is nothing more the environmental campaigner can do, once talks at the G8 summit and beyond, have begun. To repeat the phrase: it is now "our of the hands" of environmental campaigners.

Further, the BBC's piece highlighted a worrying flaw in this 'pass the buck' system, in which campaigner cedes control to politician. The BBC report stated that,

"Mr Blair added that 'practical policy making' was now needed if the fight against global warming was to be effective."

Surely the notion of 'practical policy making' is tautological? If it is not, then policy must exist that has no practical purpose at all, and has no chance of being effective.

With Blair calling for the time in which the carbon emissions issue must be "taken out of the hands" of campaigners, we cannot be sure that politicians, who in such a scenario, it seems, have sole responsibility for the outcome, are going to make good Blair's claim that "practical policy making" is the way towards an effective solution.

Copenhagen is a genuine opportunity. Without a genuine canvas of ideas, that opportunity could be lost.

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