Articles
G8: First breakthrough for climate protection
Wed, 08.07.2009
Photo: REGIERUNGonline/Kugler
G8 host, Silvio Berlusconi welcomes the Chancellor
The world's major industrialised nations aim to stop global temperatures rising by more than two degrees. The heads of state and government of the G8 states agreed on this target on the first day of this year's G8 summit. Chancellor Angela Merkel has deemed this a huge step forwards.
The two-degree ceiling on global temperature rise is considered by scientists to be the absolute limit if we are to avoid the most drastic consequences of climate change.
"Everybody, from the United States of America to Japan and Europe, will be working to achieve precisely this goal," reported Angela Merkel following the initial talks in the Italian town of L’Aquila. This outcome marks significant progress compared to both last year’s G8 summit meeting in Japan and the Heiligendamm summit two years ago. "For this reason I am extremely pleased with the first day of the summit," declared the Chancellor.
Framework for further climate protection negotiations
There is still a lot to be done with respect to medium-term climate protection targets, but the framework for negotiations is now in place, which is an important milestone on the way to the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen at the end of this year. In December the international community will meet in the Danish capital to consider climate protection commitments after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.
Kyoto Protocol
Photo: REGIERUNGonline/Kugler
Merkel welcomes turn-around in US policyAngela Merkel pointed to the changes in America’s attitude to climate change policy as an important precondition for the agreement reached today. "The fact that the American government now feels every bit as committed to the two-degree target as other nations is a clear signal that we all want the Copenhagen conference to be a success," she stated.Shared but differentiated responsibility
Tomorrow's talks with the major emerging economies (or G5 as they are collectively known) will focus on the contribution they can make to achieving the two-degree target. The G8 states aim to discuss with these nations how we can accept our "shared but differentiated responsibility" as the Chancellor put it. The G8 heads of state and government believe that global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 50 percent. This would mean the G8 states reducing their emissions by at least 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050.
The G5 states are Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa: dynamic economies that are set to make the transition from developing to industrialised nations.
Photo: REGIERUNGonline/Kugler
Pulling together to keep temperature rise down to two degreesThe G8 states are now urging developing countries too to make an appropriate contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For the Chancellor it is quite clear that, "If we can reach the agreement we hope for tomorrow with the emerging economies, they too will be committed to achieving the two-degree target."Towards sustainable budgets once the crisis is over
Angela Merkel considered today’s discussions on the economic and financial crisis as positive too. "We were largely in agreement," she noted. In the run-up to the G20 summit meeting in September in the USA major progress must be made on the new regulation of the international financial market. This is in the interests of all states, she said, "So that we see no repeat of a crisis like this one".
Another topic of the economic-policy discussions in L'Aquila was the imperative of returning to sustainable budgets after the crisis. The Chancellor stressed that the emphasis was on "post-crisis". The G8 partners are unanimous in their assessment that the economic and financial crisis is far from over. "If we are lucky, the crisis is now bottoming out," said the Chancellor.
The idea of the Chancellor to lay out the principles of global economic activity and growth in a UN charter met with broad support on the part of G8 governments. The nations aim to work on this in the run-up to the G20 summit in the USA. "We will thus signal that we have understood that in the past growth has not been sustainable, but has been built on risks," explained Angela Merkel.
In terms of world trade the G8 states aim to keep global markets open and prevent protectionism. In the current crisis in particular there is a risk that individual countries might attempt to close their markets. The international discussions to liberalise trade under the auspices of the Doha Round must be brought to a speedy conclusion, demanded the G8 heads of state and government in a declaration issued.
G8 + G5 + 3
On Thursday the G8 states will firstly open their deliberations to include the G5 nations before they are joined in the afternoon by the so-called MEF states.
The MEF, or Major Economies Forum, includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and the USA. Together these states are preparing for the UN Climate Change Conference. Tomorrow afternoon the heads of state and government of sixteen of the world’s major economies will be deliberating on climate change and world trade.
"We must pull together in order to tackle the major challenges facing us," Angela Merkel has stressed time and again. It looks as though the nations of the world are ready to do just that.
