Sightings | Alumni Profile
A Delaware Yankee in Tony Blair’s Embassy
by Lisa Dellwo
When Jim Reilly gives speeches about Great Britain’s successes in reducing carbon emissions, he often has to reassure audiences baffled by his lack of a British accent. He has only been “British” since January 2005, when he began work as an energy and environment advisor to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., a position he took after spending four years as an environmental aide for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).
The embassy’s job, says Reilly, “is to take care of what London says are priorities. And what London says right now is ‘Climate change, climate change, climate change.’” Reilly began the job in a year when the United Kingdom was preparing to lead both the European Union and the G8. At last year’s G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, climate change was one of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s two main focuses—the other was poverty in Africa—and he succeeded in urging G8 leaders to agree that climate change is indeed a problem, that it needs to be tackled urgently, and that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the key to the solution.
At the embassy, where he is part of the Global Issues Group and reports to First Secretary for Energy and Environment Christian Turner, Reilly is a conduit of environmental information between the British government and the United States. He spends a good deal of time in the halls of Congress and in public forums highlighting British success stories such as the suburban town of Woking, which between 1990 and 2004 reduced energy consumption by 49 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 78 percent. Reilly also highlights the work of corporations with a major U.K. presence, like British Telecom, Alcoa and DuPont, that have succeeded in reducing their energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
The first question Reilly is always asked is “How much does this cost?” He points out that the town of Woking has not raised taxes or energy rates and that the corporations have not suffered financially. “None of these CEOs would do this if they couldn’t justify it to their shareholders,” Reilly says. “They all have come to understand that doing this is a net positive, and done correctly, it reduces their energy cost and it reduces their financial risk, so long-term, they will be better off than competitors.”
U.K. and U.S. approaches to emissions
In his talks, Reilly sometimes displays
a chart showing that U.K. greenhouse
gas emissions have dropped 15 percent
since 1990, a reduction largely due to a
transition from coal to natural gas for
generating electricity. U.S. emissions
rose more than 11 percent in the same
time period.
One of the reasons for the difference, says Reilly, is that the U.K. and the European Union now have significant legislation regarding emissions, whereas currently the U.S. favors a voluntary approach. While both the U.S. and the U.K. both import increasing amounts of energy to satisfy demand, England is perhaps more energy-aware, Reilly believes. The country has a culture and ethic of energy efficiency, with smaller cars and less energy used per person.
Although the U.S. is not a Kyoto Protocol signatory, Reilly says that Tony Blair “needs the U.S. at the table” in order to move forward on a global climate change agreement. Blair “has put his head around the science and decided the right thing to do is to bring countries together to work on this.” Having President George W. Bush attribute (at Gleneagles) climate change to human activities and committing the U.S. to the long-term process was critical, Reilly says.
The importance of U.S. participation in climate change discussions is a key reason Reilly, an American, is employed by the British Embassy. Working on Capitol Hill for a centrist Democratic senator, Reilly developed “a very laudable reputation in the D.C. community for doing tremendous work on environmental issues,” according to Tim Profeta MEM/JD’97, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Profeta was Reilly’s counterpart in Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s office, and the two worked closely together on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “His hiring by the British Embassy,” says Profeta, “symbolized the need for help in understanding the American political position, especially about climate change.”