Tony Blair and Arnie together at a news conference today - pics

[Kadie]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chat on the way to a news conference at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., Monday, July 31, 2006. Blair and Schwarzenegger joined a group of CEOs and business leaders from California and international companies at a roundtable discussion to share ideas on how business and government can work together to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)


California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair shake hands at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., Monday, July 31, 2006. Blair and Schwarzenegger joined a group of CEOs and business leaders from California and international companies at a roundtable discussion on how business and government can work together to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)


California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair talk onstage at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., Monday, July 31, 2006. Blair and Schwarzenegger joined a group of CEOs and business leaders from California and international companies at a roundtable discussion to share ideas on how business and government can work together to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)


California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair share the stage at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., Monday, July 31, 2006. Blair and Schwarzenegger joined a group of CEOs and business leaders from California and international companies at a roundtable discussion on how business and government can work together to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

[spindrifter]

1. Some poodles are smarter than their masters:

Patrick Wintour, political editor
Tuesday August 1, 2006
The Guardian


Tony Blair yesterday sidestepped the Bush administration's refusal to act on climate change by signing what was hailed as a ground-breaking agreement with California, the world's 12th largest carbon emitter, to fight global warming.
Downing Street made no attempt to disguise the fact that the deal is designed to get round Republican objections to states imposing mechanisms to cut carbon emissions. With other US states also interested or involved in carbon trading markets, the path is being opened to bring US business into international efforts to fight climate change, even though international progress has been stymied by the Bush administration's refusal to sign up to binding targets in the Kyoto protocol.

The prime minister wants to create a coalition of the willing among those US states prepared to join the European Union's carbon trading scheme. The Blair-Schwarzenegger deal came at a meeting in Long Beach organised by Steve Howard, CEO of the Climate Group, an international charity working to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and Lord Browne, chairman of British Petroleum. Virgin's Sir Richard Branson was also present.

The two-year-old EU carbon trading scheme sets country-by-country overall caps for carbon, and rewards individual companies which find a profitable way to minimise carbon emissions.

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,1834664,00.html