We all know that the Copenhagen climate talks last year failed to achieve any agreement that would make a difference. The outgoing UN client chief, Yvo de Boer was recently quoted as saying that there is little or no chance of any effective agreement before the next summit in South Africa in 2011.

So two years lost!

Tony Blair has called for action in a BBC 4 Radio interview. He said that world leaders may pay a heavy price in history if they fail to tackle global warming and that politicians did not have to wait for chaotic climate change in order for them to act.

Blair said that climate change science contained uncertainties and that it was far better to express the issue as one of risk. He felt that because of the potentially massive consequences associated with the risk of not cutting emissions then the risks justified action.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Now it is interesting that whilst I and others believed that the UK, under PM Blair, had significantly reduced our emissions. Counties such as China and India had been very bad and significantly increased their CO2 emissions and should follow our lead. However, it has recently come to light that emissions in the UK actually rose under PM Blair if embedded emissions from goods imported into the UK were included in the national figures.

So this highlights a major problem that I think will continue to derail international agreement on reduction of CO2 emissions. Do you account for CO2 emissions at point of use or where the product is sold? We are then into the endless cycle of tracking where all the components of a product came from or where products go and if these exported products are part of a larger product where was that product sold.

This type of problem will continue to plague any international agreement. Meanwhile the risks don’t become any smaller!