Gordon Brown was physically in Brussels yesterday. But it was clear that mentally he was already travelling to the emergency oil summit which is taking place in Saudi Arabia tomorrow.
At his closing Brussels press conference he kept repeating a single number – $3 trillion. This – Brown claims – is the amount that oil consuming countires have transferred to oil-producing countries as a result of the recent spike in oil prices. As the FT reports today, that is causing huge budgetary and political strains in many consuming countries.
But Brown has a plan. He thinks the oil-producers should take some of that $3 trillion and re-cycle it, by investing in alternative energy projects in oil-consuming countries. This idea sounds so flaky that I assumed I had mis-heard it, when he first outlined the scheme. But no – he repeated it several times. That is definitely what he going to be asking the Saudis to do.
A British official later explained to me that Brown would suggest to the oil producers that they could gain by investing in the industries of the future. Also they would be performing a service to the world economy by re-cycling some of their well-gotten gains in the rest of the world – spreading the oil wealth about a bit.
But – I pointed out – we were also asking the Saudis and the other oil-producers deliberately to make oil less important to the world economy. That would undermine the source of their current wealth. What is in it for them, I asked my official pal? “The ever-lasting gratitude of the British government”, he said smiling slightly.
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