During the recent G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a great supporter of coal and a well-known skeptic on the issue of climate change, found himself isolated: President Obama insisted on including a reference to global warming and the objectives reduction of emissions (coal is the most polluting fossil fuel). But now it is also his British colleagues (both the Tories and Abbott are part of the political wing of the Conservatives) who are criticizing the Australian premier.
His skeptical positions on human responsibility for climate change have been variously described as 'eccentric', 'incomprehensible' and 'flat-earther' (an expression referring to those who believed that the earth was flat). Critics include the energy minister in the Cameron government, Lord Deben (a former minister in Thatcher's and John Major's governments) and Tim Yeo (also a former minister under Thatcher).
Yet it was precisely a great conservative figure like Margaret Thatcher who already 25 years ago, in a speech to the United Nations, called for the dangers of global warming to be placed at the top of government priorities: «It is human beings and their activities that are they change our planet's environment in harmful and dangerous ways.
Britain is at the forefront of efforts to reduce emissions. Already in 2008 it had legislated the objective of reducing polluting emissions by 2050% (compared to 80 levels) by 1990, and it has already reduced them by 25% today. In June, David Cameron opened the world's largest wind farm with 175 turbines in the Thames Estuary.
