UK reactions to 'historic' climate deal reached in Montreal
Prime Minister Tony Blair said the deal was a "vital next step in tackling climate change" and welcomed the "progress" made.
"Of course it is only a beginning but it is important and demonstrates why it is always worth engaging with America and the rest of the world," he said.
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Margaret Beckett, the UK's Secretary of State for the Environment, said that "it represented an even greater breakthrough that the original agreement." She continued by saying that "far from burying the protocol, which was the intension of the US, the protocol is now stronger than ever.
Friends of the Earth's (FOE) international vice chairman Tony Juniper said the meeting was a "historic agreement" that will "strengthen global resolve with legally-binding targets to take action to tackle climate change under the Kyoto Protocol".
Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth said: "It's better than nothing, but it isn't much. We need a great deal more than talk if we are going to stop the descent towards rapid and irreversible climate change."
Carbon-info.org's chairman Flemming Bermann was "please to see that the Kyoto protocol had survived US attempts to destroy it, though it is far from perfect. In the EU alone, growth in aviation will far outweigh any cuts in CO2 made under Kyoto."
"It is disappointing that progress is so slow. World leaders continue
to use 'further talks' as a way of delaying real actions and wasting
valuable time," he said.
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