I wonder how long will it take Tony Blair to form his Carbon Committee. Who will it compromise of?  Will it seek world leading experts or rely on community focus groups, just like its derided advisory nuclear waste power group, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management?

I hope they will have learned lessons from that experience. For those of you who don’t remember, a leading scientist resigned from the group in exasperation at the way focus groups were being pampered at the expense of experts’ advice.

I decided to find out for myself if this was true and joined a handful of interested residents from East Anglia to discuss this. Sure enough, I had to tick boxes indicating my preference on the future of our nuclear waste disposal. I know no more about this than how to fly to the moon – and disposing it in space had already been discounted!

I expect Tony Juniper, from Friends of the Earth, will be included on the committee. I met him in Cambridge this year and he couldn’t praise David Cameron’s green lead enough and expressed great disappointed about Tony Blair’s lack of support. He also said that unless a Climate Change Bill was introduced this year by the Government, then he would do so himself, he had enough cross-party support for it to happen.

All round disappointment has been expressed at the lack of substance  outlined in the Climate Change Bill during yesterday’s Queen’s Speech, the fact that it makes no reference to an annual reduction of carbon emissions.

This was something urged by the outspoken former Environment Secretary Michael Meacher, who I hope will be included on the Carbon Committee, he seems to be on the right wavelength. In May 2005 he introduced the Climate Change EDM^[5] to parliament, which called on the government to commit to yearly CO2 emission reductions of 3%; we are still waiting.

But then who can beat Maggie Thatcher’s perceptive vision of what lie ahead when 16 years ago she spoke passionately at the 2nd World Climate Change Conference and warned:

“The threat to our world comes not only from tyrants and their tanks, it can be more insidious though less visible. The danger of global warming is as yet unseen, but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.

“Our ability to come together to stop or limit damage to the world’s environment will be perhaps the greatest test of how far we can act as a world community. No-one should under-estimate the imagination that will be required, nor the scientific effort, nor the unprecedented co-operation we shall have to show.”

Was she right? Will Gordon Brown be committed to tackling climate change if he becomes Labour leader?  Who do you feel should serve on the Government’s Climate Committee?