G8 pledges do not go far enough

The agreement by international leaders at the G8 conference in Rome to limit the rise in global temperatures caused by climate change to a maximum of two degrees Celsius has met with widespread disappointment.

Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, has said that the goals agreed to by the members of the Group of the eight most industrialised nations of the world (G8) are insufficient to counter climate change. “Climate change is the greatest challenge facing this and future generations,” he said. “Much more for future generations: your daughters and sons and your grandchildren. Emissions are rising and the clock is ticking.”

Ban Ki-Moon has invited world leaders to attend an “unprecedented” meeting on climate change in New York on 22^nd September.

At the G8 summit heads of state and ministers from Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Russia agreed to an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. UN figures point to these countries as responsible for 80% of the gases launched into the world atmosphere; therefore, they are the ones to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Huge demonstrations were held by environmental campaigners on the city’s streets, demanding a greater commitment from those governments to mitigate the effects of climate change and the economic crisis. More than 100 activists occupied, painted, blocked and hung off cranes at five Italian coal-fired power stations, pointing to coal as “the world’s worst climate killer”.

“G8 inaction has brought the world one step closer to catastrophic climate change. They are hiding their lack of leadership behind hollow words and empty gestures,” said Julien Vincent of Greenpeace from on top of the Brindisi coal plant chimney.

By agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, but with no interim targets to be achieved much earlier – by 2020 – Greenpeace said the G8 leaders had “abdicated action on climate change to future generations”. “They had an historic opportunity but have squandered it, by failing to commit to mid-term emissions cuts and deferring discussion on money to enable the developing world to tackle climate change,” said Guruswamy Ananthapadmanabhan, international director of Greenpeace.

Friends of the Earth’s international climate campaigner, Tom Picken, said that rich countries meeting at the G8 failed to show leadership by slashing their own emissions first and fastest. “Rich countries bear responsibility for climate change and developing countries are right to demand that they provide new money now to enable them to develop cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change, which is already putting millions of lives at risk.”

International Christian aid agencies say that while there are a few commendable aspects about the G8 summit, progress for the climate change issue has been “painfully slow”. While the G8 leaders agreed for the first time to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050, the leaders failed to agree on using the 1990 baseline to determine the exact goal of the emission cuts. Aid agencies say establishing a baseline is critical to making the commitment meaningful.

Trocaire deputy director, Eamonn Meehan, said that on the issue of climate change the G8 has demonstrated its inadequacy. “Whilst agreeing in principle to keeping temperature rise below two degrees Celsius, it failed to agree any concrete measures to address carbon emissions. Such bland commitments ring hollow if not backed up by concrete measures,” he said.

“Overall, the weakness of the G8 as a global club has been exposed this week. In a world trying to address serious complex issues such as hunger and climate, this group is no longer the place to do business. It risks becoming an irrelevance. Other large countries such as China, India, South Africa and Brazil need to be at the table. Other major institutions, moreover, such as the UN and EU, need to be centrally involved rather than on the periphery as ‘special guests’. So long as the G8 fails to accept this changing reality, it will remain a forum for hollow promises,” said Meehan, adding, “You can’t eat promises.”

While welcoming the G8 pledges, Tearfund warned that they “fail to match the level of ambition desperately needed”. Paul Cook, Tearfund Advocacy Director, criticised G8 leaders for failing to set “an ambitious goal” for 2020 emissions targets. He warned that “billions, not millions” would be needed to finance mitigation, adaptation and technology to help poor countries adequately respond to the impact of climate change.

“What part of the word urgency do G8 leaders not understand?” asked Mr Cook. “Adequate finance is the sticking point currently deadlocking negotiations and so far the group has failed to put their money where their mouths are.”

While the G8 communiqué showed signs of progress from previous statements, Caritas reckons it has been “painfully slow”. A Caritas statement said, “Finance is needed for developing countries to adapt to the impact of climate change and put themselves on a green economic path (to avoid locking into a high-carbon one).
“These are restitutional payments, not aid, and as such they must be additional to Overseas Development Aid (ODA). We need recognition that finance should be additional to aid, should prioritise the most vulnerable and include a serious assessment of potential sources for that finance.”
The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) also criticised the G8 representatives for not providing leadership on financing the efforts to achieve the goals agreed.

“When the language of the communiqué is so heavily infused with enthusiasm rather than solid action, we have to be sceptical,” commented Joanne Green, head of policy at CAFOD.

“Although we had a breakthrough of two degrees, the emissions targets are not strong enough and not backed up with commitment on funding developing countries’ strategy for coping with climate change,” she said.

Part of the problem is that developing countries, including China and India, feel it is unfair to expect them to finance the climate change adjustments necessary to reduce emissions.

Aid agency Oxfam agrees that the G8 outcome has been a “shambles”. According to Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director, Oxfam International, “With the two degree limit, the G8 effectively agreed the climate floodwaters shouldn’t reach the ceiling. But they did nothing about the water already swirling around our necks. The G8 must deliver action now to counter and cope with climate chaos. This means developed countries delivering at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and more than $150bn per year for developing country action on adaptation and emissions.”

Finally, the international environmental coalition, TckTckTck, believes the conference ended in a “good news, bad news” scenario. The bad news was that leading industrialised nations failed to reach a binding target to slash levels of the pollution that causes global warming by the year 2050. Instead, the G8 nations – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia – shook hands on a mostly symbolic goal to limit global temperature rise by two degrees Celsius.

Without a set of specific carbon-reduction targets – and aggressive green economy programmes to help meet them – they will not likely get there. It is the equivalent of saying, “We must make certain the house doesn’t burn down, while ignoring the flaming pan on the stove, the sparking lamp in the living room, and the pile of smouldering rags in the garage,” according to a statement released by TckTckTck.

The good news, according to TckTckTck, is that “We now have an enormous opportunity to tell our elected leaders that they have our support to do more and put in place a fair, balanced and binding treaty. This December our governments will again come together to create an agreement that would replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in three years. The Copenhagen summit is our best shot to turn back dangerously rising temperatures, unleash the global clean-energy economy, and build a safe and prosperous future.”

To join TckTckTck’s campaign to tell our governments that they need to sign a global climate deal at Copenhagen in December that is ambitious, fair and binding, go to www.tcktcktck.org.