Rahul Gandhi has great commitment to India: Blair

THE BLAIR PROJECT: Blair said that N-energy was essential to save the climate as well as for a nation's security.

        

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• Mush takes detractors head on despite fears of ouster
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Keywords: Tibet, China

Former British prime minister, Tony Blair was in India and CNN-IBN's Vidya Shankar Aiyar talked to him about his work on the climate change issue, the situation in China, the Indo-US Nuclear Deal and Rahul Gandhi.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: You are now batting to save the planet from this climate change crisis. Have you got a positive response yet from the Government of India?

Tony Blair: I think the Government of India has moved a long way in the past year or so and the Prime Minister of India has taken the leadership of the climate change counsel and they are going to produce an action plan by 2008 summer. Things are really on the move here, which is excellent and this really carries on the work I began at the Gleneages G8 Summit in 2005 to which we invited India and China and other major economies. And I have been carrying on doing that work first of all in office and now out of office to make a contribution if I can.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: How much is it that people are now going to believe you? Then you were British Prime Minister. Today you are part of a private group which is basically made up of industry, businessmen, maybe supported by some in the government as well. Industry itself is accused so much in terms of damaging the environment, so why should anyone believe you?

Tony Blair: Well it's a very good point, but unless you get business and industry involved in it, the solution is not going to work. And the single most important thing that we have got to do is to work out a framework within a sphere that allows are economies to grow — particularly the Indian economy to grow and let people out of poverty — but does so in a way that's environmentally sustainable. Now that is not going to happen without business and industry and in a way what we are going to do is take this out of the politics of pressure groups and put it in the sort of practical and realistic negotiation — the type of thing that I was involved in before I left office. But I can really devote some time now.

The reason I decided to lead this project politically was that I found out when I was the Prime Minister, we managed to get the world community in Germany last year at the G8 Summit to this point. Okay, we all agree that it is a problem, we all agree that we need a new global deal, we all agree that everybody including America and India and China have got to be in it — but what is it? That's the question.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: But the problem is, aren't you preaching to the converted already? There is Japan, there is China on your trip, and now India. But the real problem seems to be coming from America isn't it?