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G8 SUMMIT: The Climate Does Not Look Good
By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, May 30, 2005 (IPS) - -The prospects for progress on climate change at
the G8 summit in July do not look too good, going by the content of a
leaked document.
The document purporting to be a draft for agreements on climate change
was posted anonymously on a website Friday. The British Prime Minister's
office confirmed later that the document was genuine, but said it was
being developed, and was not the final draft.
Friends of the Earth picked on the document to show how little
substantial progress there had been on climate change. The document
marks agreement at the officials level on the draft to be produced at
the summit of heads of government of the G8 countries (the United
States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Britain, Italy, France and Germany).
The summit will be held at Gleneagles in Scotland July 6-8. Climate
change is among the two top priorities named by the British hosts, along
with development of Africa.
The leaked draft calls for steps to deal with climate change, and for
international financial institutions to play a role. But the general
suggestions are not backed by any call to binding commitments.
Friends of the Earth hopes now for some late injection of life into the
draft. ''We are at the end of May, and there is still a month to go to
shape something much, much better than this,'' Catherine Pearce from
Friends of the Earth told IPS.
The group lists three principal objections to the draft document:
- There are no specific targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse
gases from G8 nations. Without targets or timetables meaningful action
to tackle the problem is unlikely;
- There is no recognition of the major impact that G8 nations have had -
and continue to have - on climate change. G8 countries are responsible
for 64 per cent of all global emissions since 1800. The United States
has four percent of the world's population, yet it produces around a
quarter of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions;
- There is no mention of the importance of implementing the
international climate treaty, the Kyoto protocol, which the United
States has refused to sign, or the need for international action to curb
emissions after 2012, when the first commitment period under Kyoto ends.
''It is indicative of where the stumbling blocks are,'' Pearce said.
Inevitably, no stumbling block is bigger than the United States, which
has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. That refusal is only indicative
of a policy of scepticism towards climate change itself.
The limited nature of the draft ''shows the kind of limits to the
thinking so far, they are not pushing themselves beyond the comfort
zone,'' Pearce said. The need is to ''go through a paradigm shift in the
use of energy and how to fund it,'' she said. ''But how do you say at
this late stage that you've got to go further?''
The draft shows officials looking at the right issues but not going far
enough, Pearce said. While British Prime Minister Tony Blair is
campaigning in G8 countries to push the British agenda, the new impetus
to do more will have to come from all the leaders, Pearce said.
''We do not have much faith in Blair's special relationship with Bush.
Bush will not give what we want, what Blair wants,'' she said. U.S.
President George W. Bush had himself taken an early decision to pull the
United States away from the Kyoto protocol agreed in 1997 to cut
emissions that are believed to lead to global warming and consequently
climate change.
There are fears that the draft agreement could even get worse than it is
at present. It does not yet include any statement on the nuclear option,
or an agreement on the scientific evidence of climate change, Pearce
said. Statements on these issues ''could take us backward,'' she said.
Friends of the Earth wants a G8 agreement to include the following:
- Agreement on the compelling scientific evidence showing that climate
change is already happening and that urgent action is now required to
substantially reduce emissions.
- An agreement by G8 nations for specific, substantial and timetabled
cuts in their domestic emissions of greenhouse gases.
- G8 nations must take radical action at home in order to reduce the
impacts of climate change, including a change in consumption patterns
and a meaningful switch to the use of renewable sustainable energy
sources.
- G8 nations must stop promoting fossil fuel extraction in developing
nations through international financial institutions such as the World
Bank and export credit agencies.
- G8 governments should immediately phase-in public finance for
sustainable clean energy.
The leakage of the draft is now set to put renewed pressure on officials
from the G8 countries to improve the draft.
(END)
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