Sustainable energy supply tops agenda at G-8 conference on climate change

LONDON - Oct 31

Prime Minister Tony Blair will push for international commitment to tackle climate change when ministers from G-8 countries and other major polluting nations gather in London on Tuesday.

Addressing global warming is a key priority for Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, and Blair is intent on resolving the long-standing impasse over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has refused to sign the accord, arguing it would damage the U.S. economy.

Hoping to build on the G-8 summit earlier this year in Gleneagles, Scotland, Britain hosts a conference of energy and environment ministers from the G-8 nations, and 12 other countries on Tuesday

"What he is trying to achieve out of this is a consensus about how we move beyond Kyoto, how we involve not just the U.S. but also India and China in agreeing how to develop sustainable energy supplies and that is the key objective," said Blair's official spokesman Monday.

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