"All major countries need to act, if we are to tackle it effectively. So if some countries stand back, it won't work and others will question why they should act," Blair wrote in a column in The Independent newspaper.

"This is why I have placed so much emphasis this year on trying to rebuild an international consensus on climate change. In other words, we need to think globally as well as act locally. We are doing both," he wrote.

Blair said it "is just unrealistic to expect countries with growing energy needs and huge supplies" not to use coal and instead stressed efforts to make it cleaner.

"And the UK is leading the way in doing so, by working with the EU to develop demonstration power stations in China for carbon capture and storage," he said.

The Kyoto protocol, which took effect this year, "shows how an international system of capping emissions, with a trading market to help meet the caps cost-effectively, can drive substantial emissions reductions," he wrote. "Under Kyoto, 15 of the EU countries including the UK will deliver a 16 percent reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 compared with business as usual," he said.

"I could talk about nothing but the Kyoto protocol. That way, maybe people would believe that I am still committed to it. Which I am. But as I have been saying since 2001, Kyoto is only a first step," he said.

"Even if all countries, including the US, signed up and met their 2012 targets, this would only stabilise emissions - not cut them, which we need to," he added.

"So, we need an international framework and emissions targets which take us beyond Kyoto's 2012 commitments. That is the 'green' thing to do," he wrote. "Some people have said that I have undermined the idea of post-2012 targets by saying that countries would not agree to them if they meant choking off economic growth," he said.

"On the contrary, I am showing the path we need to follow if we are going to agree internationally binding targets which all can sign up to," he argued. "Because countries like the United States (which represents 25 per cent of all emissions), India and China (which is building a new power station every week) will only sign up to those targets if they feel they can be met without slowing down their development," he said.

"And what we also need, if we are going to meet those targets as well as increase prosperity, is new technologies and cleaner energy," he added.

All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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