An Englishman's Castle

Tomorrow he will launch Technology for a Low Carbon Future, a report put together with the Climate Group, setting out his arguments.

n Blair’s brave new world there will also be dozens of nuclear power stations, probably including fast-breeder reactors — the type that produce not only power but also lots of nuclear material suitable for fuelling more such plants.

There will be massive investment in research into biofuels, along with the replacement of all petrol and diesel vehicles with others powered by electricity or hydrogen.

“What we are talking about is a revolution in the way we produce and consume energy, travel and design and manage our urban and rural environments,” says Blair, eyes gleaming.

Blair’s faith in science to achieve such changes seems unbounded, which is odd, given that he has no formal scientific training and used to speak out vigorously against the expansion of nuclear power when Labour was in opposition.

He does, however, have a history of investing huge faith in whatever people, issues or causes he chooses to adopt — sometimes in the face of all evidence to the contrary.

Blair’s vision, is that developed nations can be persuaded to invest hundreds of billions of pounds in technologies such as carbon sequestration and new nuclear. On developing such systems they will — or so the rhetoric goes — promptly hand over the technology, plus money to build it, to countries such as India and China.

For Blair the logic is obvious. “If we do not involve those poorer countries, they are not going to be able to implement these measures and their emissions will expand, wiping out any cuts we make,” he says. “They need help and it’s in our interests that they get that help.”

Voters may not see it that way. Instead they will see vast sums of western money — Blair’s own report puts it at up to £98 billion annually, starting next year — being sent to fast-growing rival economies in the East. And, credit-crunched as they are, they may not like it.