Nothing at the centre

Solar panel

A spotter draws my attention to this comment by Tony Blair, made in connection with his new role with the Climate Group attempting to negotiate a new international agreement to fight climate change. “What I found, whilst still in office as prime minister, was that countries had their own environmental policy. They talked to other nations of course, but there was no centre where it was brought together.” Read the whole report here and you can read more about the Blair initiative here. Well, isn’t that half of the federalist case? That political decisions will only be taken when there are political institutions capable of doing so. And, in the case of climate change, those institutions don’t yet exist. The other half of the federalist case is that those political decisions should be taken in an open and democratic manner, rather than as the result, say, of a freelance politician supported by an NGO engaging in private talks with government leaders out of sight of the voting public. Still, we can’t have everything, and no-one ever said that federalism was a question of all or nothing.

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