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G8: Rich countries retreat from action on climate change
G8 Action Network statement
July 9, 2008 -- The G8's communique regarding their action on climate is actually inaction being masked as movement. It is a great fraud being perpetrated on the global community that would significantly reduce its capacity to contain climate change. We fully agree with the statement of the Government of South Africa that "[W]hile the Statement may appear as a movement forward, we are concerned that it may, in effect, be a regression from what is required to make a meaningful contribution to meeting the challenges of climate change." [Click pic for BBC footage of G8 protests.]
Retreat from Bali
The announcement of the agreement among the G8 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally by 50 per cent by 2050 is actually a step back from the minimum action that was demanded by the global community during the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in Bali last December. In Bali, opposition from the US, Japan and Canada almost killed a developing consensus that should commit industrialised (Annex 1) countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. That developing consensus also projected the minimum cut needed by 2050 to be in the range of 80 to 90 per cent if the rise in global temperature was to be kept below 2 degrees centigrade in the 21st century.
The G8's 50 per cent formula is objectionable on several counts:
First, the G8 formula is a global cut, not one undertaken by the industrialised or Annex One countries, so big polluters like the US can actually free-ride on the rest of the world.
Second, the cut has no clear baseline. It was revealing that in announcing it, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda initially said it was from 1990 levels, then had to take back that statement and subsequently mentioned a 2000 baseline.
Third, this declaration of intent is not binding and there is no indication that the G8 want to bring their "commitment" fully under the United Nations climate negotiations framework that would bind its signatories. Indeed, the G8 announcement reinforces the G8 as a site for climate action that rivals the UN process and effectively subverts it. Not surprisingly, the G8 declaration emerged as part of a parallel process known as the "Major Economies Meeting." The Major Economies Meeting is a US initiative to wrest decision-making on climate from the United Nations framework and process.
All in all, the G8 announcement is one giant step away from meaningful mandatory reductions and significantly increases the chances of the planet slipping into uncontrolled climate change.
Supporting the wrong agency
Another setback to the cause of effective climate action was the G8's endorsement of the World Bank's Climate Investment Funds, to which the communique said certain countries had already pledged $6 billion. Civil society groups monitoring the Bank's environment program had already warned the G8 that there are very serious concerns that the funds would be heavily oriented toward funding large-scale coal plants. Without a clear definition of clean technology, the funds may be used to finance projects that do not clearly mitigate climate change or may take up resources that bring only minor or incremental change at a time that fundamental change is needed.
Just as the G8 undermines the UN as the site for climate action, so does the World Bank subvert an already established UN mechanism. An Adaptation Fund under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established in Bali by the Conference of Parties in December 2007 precisely to provide technological assistance to developing countries. Instead of funding this mechanism, the G8 countries may now divert their contributions to the World Bank Climate Investment Funds to maintain control of the process of technology transfer. Not surprisingly, the developing countries have criticized the World Bank mechanism as a threat to serious efforts to assist the global South to deal with climate change.
After failing as a development bank, the World Bank is now trying to create the image that it is the "climate bank''. This is indeed the height of hypocrisy. With $2 billion already spent on coal, oil and gas projects over the last year, the World Bank has broken its own record as the world's largest multilateral financier of greenhouse-emitting energy initiatives. Even as it pretends to deal with climate change with its Climate Investment Funds, the Bank is actually exacerbating it with its massive fossil fuel extraction lending.
We must call a spade a spade. The G8 declaration does not constitute an advance but a step backward in the global community's ability to deal with climate change. Saying that it is better than nothing or that it is realistic given the Bush administration's opposition to significant action is to lend legitimacy to a dangerous charade.
The G8 has once again lived up to its reputation of being an obstacle to the global community's efforts to come to grips with the challenges of our times. We repeat our call to disband this unelected body of rich country governments that acts as if it were the government of the world.
Partial list of endorsers: Attac Japan, CADTM, ESK-Basque Country, Focus on the Global South, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Friends of the Earth International, FSU-France, Institute for Policy Studies-US, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, Via Campesina.
[Reposted from http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/node/92.]
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'Planet Burns While G8 Fiddles'
'Planet Burns While G8 Fiddles'
By Ramesh Jaura
TOYAKO, Japan, Jul 9 (IPS) - While the world's major industrialised nations expressed satisfaction over their three-day summit meetings that concluded Wednesday, non-governmental organisations, after some early and limited approval, were deeply disappointed with the outcome on the whole.
"The summit (in Toyako on the northern Japanese island Hokkaido) has been another betrayal of the poor and citizens of G8 countries," Kumi Naidoo, co-chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) told IPS.
"The outcome shows a lack of understanding of the heart of the issues causing hunger and desperation in many countries. We hope the citizens of these eight countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Canada and the United States) will put more pressure on their out-of-touch leaders," Naidoo said.
"The planet is burning while the G8 is fiddling," the GCAP co-chair added.
Naidoo said the GCAP representatives of ten countries observing the G8 were deeply concerned at how out of touch with reality the G8 seemed to be on the main issues related to ending poverty.
GCAP is a growing alliance of trade unions, community groups, faith groups, women and youth organisations, NGOs and other campaigners working together across more than 100 countries. GCAP is calling for action from the world's leaders to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality.
"The lack of any real discussion on biofuels in relation to the food price crisis is appalling. References to health, education and water are, sadly, not supported by adequate resources and a timeline commitment," said Naidoo.
While the G8 pays "lip service to the MDGs", their commitments suggest that even these minimalist goals are seriously at risk of failing by 2015, Naidoo said.
MDGs are the eight Millennium Development Goals that range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, to be met by the target date of 2015. These were agreed by heads of state and government at a special session of the UN General Assembly in September 2000.
The G8 said in a document on Development and Africa that "although progress has been made, significant challenges remain. We renew our commitment to these goals by reinvigorating our efforts, and by strengthening our partnerships with, as well as encouraging the efforts of, the developing countries based on mutual accountability."
Minar Pimple, Asia director of the UN Millennium Campaign commented: "Reaffirmation of MDG commitment is a positive signal in the run-up to the MDG high level event in September, but the financial resources on the table fall short of what needs to be achieved by 2015."
GCAP said that the G8 communiqué this year only reiterates most of the group's earlier commitments "but the world has changed for the worse since 2005."
The increase in food prices by 30 to 45 percent has had a devastating effect, especially on women and children trying to survive on less than a dollar a day, GCAP warns. Millions more are being pushed into poverty, it says.
"Japan was not able to muster up the leadership we hoped to see from them as summit host," GCAP Japan representative Tatsuo Hayashi said. "The Japanese people wanted more action to end poverty, so they will be disappointed too."
These remarks stand in stark contrast to the kudos Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda received this week from summit participants for his "leadership, commitment and sense of purpose," as one participant described it.
In another analysis of the conference documents, GCAP welcomed the 10 billion dollars pledged by the G8 since January 2008 towards the global food price crisis, but said "it is still a knee-jerk response that doesn't address the long-term structural causes.
"The G8 promotion of the 'development of open and efficient agricultural and food markets' has denied poor people the chance to feed themselves today. It treats food as a mere commodity," said Joseph Ssuuna of the PELUM Association in Uganda, which is a member of GCAP.
"The G8 also seem to be pressing for quick-fix trade negotiations which we believe would be devastating -- no deal is better than a bad deal," said Charles Abani of GCAP Africa.
"Tragically, market-driven development, one of the principal causes of the present food crisis, appears to be the solution offered by the present G8 leaders. This is appalling," said Dian Kartika of GCAP Indonesia.
Reacting to the G8 leaders' statement on the Global Food Security Tuesday, farmer leader from the 'Via Campesina' group Yoshitaka Mashima said: "We do not understand why the G8 leaders pretend to solve the food crisis with more free trade while it is the liberalisation of agriculture and food markets that continue to lead us to the current crisis.
"People need to eat local food to protect themselves from the instability of world markets. We do not need more imported food," Mashima told IPS.
At a press conference Wednesday, farmers' leaders said that the G8 governments were mistakenly using the current food and climate crisis to promote the free trade agenda that is serving large companies, and not producers of food or the consumers.
The G8 leaders' statement insists on reviving the agonising WTO negotiations and on preventing countries from regulating food exports.
"Small farmers around the world, men and women, have experienced the devastating effects of free trade and WTO policies on livelihoods and local food production," the farmers' statement said. "They defend the right of countries to protect their domestic markets, to support sustainable family farmers, and to market food in the countries where it is produced."
It said that the G8 leaders also fail to address two major causes of the current food price crisis: speculation by major traders and transnational companies, and the development of bio-fuel as a new source of energy.
"It is important to keep in mind that these root causes of the food crisis are the consequences of the neo-liberal policies promoted by the G8 governments, the WTO, the World Bank and other institutions," Mashima said.
The farmers point out that the G8 also explicitly promotes genetically modified organisms (GMO) as a solution to the food crisis. In doing so, they say, the G8 countries forget that the development of industrial agriculture, with the use of GMO seeds, large amounts of chemical pesticides, fertilisers and monoculture has left millions of farmers in debt.
The statement also challenges the G8 claim about "fostering small holder agriculture." But Mashima said: "We are wondering how the world's richest nations will support small farmers if they do not even allow them to enter the countries where they are meeting."
Nineteen Korean farmers from Via Campesina were deported from Hokkaido airport Jul. 5 after being detained for 48 hours on the grounds that they could disturb the official meetings.
Mashima said that peasants and small food producers currently produce the bulk of world food, and no solution to the current crisis will be found without listening to them. (END/2008)
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