George Monbiot's open letter to the prime minister

Dear Tony Blair,

Last year, you launched the Stern review on climate change with these words: "Unless we act now, not some time distant but now, these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible. So there is nothing more serious, more urgent or more demanding of leadership." Ten weeks later, you appear to have recanted.

On Sky News last night, you claimed that it is "a bit impractical actually" to expect people fly less. Instead, we should rely on science to save us, by means that remain mysterious. As for you, you will not be setting an example, by reducing the number of holidays you take at your friends' houses in Florida and the Caribbean. This, too, apparently, would be "unrealistic".

You say that we need to "look at how you make air travel more energy-efficient, how you develop the new fuels that will allow us to burn less energy and emit less. How - for example - in the new frames for the aircraft, they are far more energy-efficient." The trouble is that none of these measures exist yet, or not to the extent that they can offset the growth in emissions from aircraft.

Even if you take the industry's most optimistic projections, which suggest almost magical gains in energy efficiency, the improvements in engine performance will be outstripped several times over by the growth in flights, as both the airlines and your transport secretary, Douglas Alexander, admit. This growth is permitted by your government's decision, made just a month ago, to allow airport capacity in the United Kingdom to double by 2030.

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