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CLIMATE CHANGE DEAL:THE BRITISH government’s chief policy adviser on climate change yesterday dismissed claims by the Copenhagen-based Schiller Institute that the drive to deal with global warming was a “plot by the British empire” to deny economic development to poor countries.

John Ashton, a physicist and former diplomat, said: “If we ever wanted to find an issue that tells us more what have in common, it’s climate change. Because if we do not address it, people won’t be able to pursue their own narrower interests [in achieving economic growth].”