Former Environment Minister Michael Meacher has implied (in the Financial Times) that, if only there was not an America, the world would have 26 per cent fewer emissions - ergo end of global warming. The fact that the $5,000bn global economy would be nearly 25 per cent worse off and Europe on its knees seems to have eluded him.

He jumps to the further conclusion that if you are not supporting Kyoto, you are not doing anything for the environment. Wrong again. As governor of Texas in 1998, George W. Bush paved the way for the most successful, speediest and most economic policies for Renewables in the whole of America, if not the world. In fact, Texas will achieve 10 per cent renewables long before Britain. No mean achievement, considering that Americans use twice as much power (1.3 kilowatt demand per capita) as the average Briton!

It may suit Mr Meacher's Weltanschauung to blame everything on America. Not only is this approach ill-founded in fact, there is no way in which it serves Britain's national interest. Besides, it ignores the wider, benevolent commercial forces at work around the world. Companies such as General Electric are relentlessly driving down the costs of wind and solar power. And, ironically, America's problems in Iraq, which have admittedly helped to drive up the price of oil by 50 per cent, are stimulating the adoption of renewables even more.