Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 11 • 8th June 2007

G8 LEADERS STRIKE COMPROMISE ON CLIMATE CHANGE


G8 LEADERS STRIKE COMPROMISE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Heads of state from the Group of Eight major industrialised nations on 7 June managed to strike a compromise on climate change, though they stopped short of adopting specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The governments did, however, pledge to cooperate on developing a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Political leaders have hailed the decision as an important breakthrough, but environmental groups have expressed scepticism about its true worth.

The deal averted a diplomatic impasse, following weeks of transatlantic discord over a German proposal to cut emissions to half of 1990 levels by 2050. The US, which had threatened to veto large sections of the G8 leaders’ traditional joint declarations, was able to avoid mandatory reduction targets, as was Russia.

In return, the Bush administration agreed to take part in the negotiation, under UN auspices, of a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto accord after its binding reduction commitments expire in 2012. This would represent a substantial departure from Washington’s recent stance in UN climate talks, where US delegates have questioned the need for a new agreement. Indeed, the administration has been openly sceptical about the well-established links between greenhouse gases and global warming.

According to a report in the Financial Times, President George W. Bush told his G8 counterparts that the US would be "actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework."

As recently as last week, the Bush administration’s call for the world’s 15 biggest polluters to discuss climate change did not mention the UN forum for addressing greenhouse gas emissions. This sparked fears that Washington was trying to bypass the ongoing multilateral process.

The US also agreed to at least "consider seriously" the 50 percent reduction target by 2050, which is what scientists say will be necessary to limit global temperature increases to no more than two degrees Celsius.

"In setting a global goal for emissions reductions in the process we have agreed today involving all major emitters, we will consider seriously the decisions made by the European Union, Canada and Japan which include at least a halving of global emissions by 2050," said the G8’s declaration outlining the compromise. The declaration called for concluding a post-Kyoto pact by 2009, with negotiations to kick off in earnest at the next conference of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali this December.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosted the 6-8 June summit in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, hailed the decision as a "huge success." "No one can escape this political declaration. It is an enormous step forward,” she said, reports the Associated Press.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "wholeheartedly" welcomed G8 leaders’ agreement "on a strong and early action to combat climate change." In a statement, Ban said that he was "greatly encouraged by their commitment to a multilateral process within the United Nations framework." "It’s a very positive outcome," added Yvo de Boer, the UN’s climate change chief, saying that it augured well for the Bali conference.

Environmental groups unimpressed

Environmental groups were cooler in their response. The deal is "clearly not enough to prevent dangerous climate change" said Daniel Mittler, Greenpeace International’s climate policy advisor. "The Bush administration has agreed to ’seriously consider’ that the rest of the world is setting reduction targets, but is as far away as from agreeing to such targets themselves as ever," he added. "Governments failed to commit to what science tells us is necessary here. They must now urgently do so at the United Nations."

WWF was more positive, saying that the accord brought "the world closer to long-term binding targets for emission reductions." Hans Verolme, director of WWF’s climate change programme, praised the EU, Japan, and Canada for aiming to halve emissions by 2050, but said that it was not enough. "Real emission cuts still have to be negotiated and countries must recognise the need for staying below 2°C. The fact that the US has signed up to this agreement is significant, now is the time for concrete actions."

Developing country role highlighted

The G8 said that developing countries would have to play a part in reducing emissions. Their declaration urged emerging economies "to address the increase in their emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of their economic development." The industrialised powers suggested that developing countries could pursue sustainability and sector-specific plans "so as to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions compared with a business as usual scenario." However, they reiterated their commitment to the UNFCCC principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" in line with countries’ capability to act. Merkel emphasised that "the industrialised countries must take the first step."

G8 countries currently account for 13 percent of the world’s population but 43 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The extent to which developing nations like China and India should be required to reduce their carbon emissions - though they are major and growing polluters, their historical and per capita emissions remain far lower than those in the industrialised world - has been a major sticking point in climate negotiations. The US says that it will not be part of any emissions reduction plan that does not include these countries. Critics say it is using China and India as a pretext for avoiding reductions.

Representatives from China, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa - the so-called ‘outreach five’ - met with G8 members on 8 June. Climate change featured prominently in their discussions.

John Kirton, director of the G8 research group at the University of Toronto, said that the Heiligendamm meeting marked a "fundamentally important breakthrough." For the first time, he said, the US had committed to constrain its own carbon output, and there was a clearer process for bringing countries like China and India into the heart of the emissions reduction framework. The talks with the five developing countries at the summit signaled that they too wanted to move forward on climate control, with "real action right now." The US had emerged as "the bridge between ‘team G8′ and the developing world," he added.

Kirton noted that even if the G8 had agreed to specific emissions reduction targets, it is unlikely that there would have been strict mechanisms to enforce them - at least based on the EU’s spotty record on ensuring that its own member states fulfill their Kyoto commitments.

Bush, who earned widespread international criticism when he pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, insisted that the US is "deadly earnest in getting something done." He stressed that "nothing is going to happen in terms of reductions" without India and China. Any emissions reduction commitments from a Kyoto successor would only kick in well after Bush leaves office in 2009.

Beijing, for its part, this month released its first comprehensive report on climate change, in which it declared that conserving energy and managing emissions will now figure prominently in the country’s economic and energy policies. It did not, however, include specific targets, and emphasised that Chinese plans for emissions reductions could not take precedence over economic development.

At time of writing, press reports indicate that the UN secretary-general has called for a global leaders meeting on climate change on 24 September, a day before the General Assembly convenes. That gathering would help set the stage for the conference in Bali. The G8 final communiqué, which is expected to also address development aid and the struggling Doha Round trade talks, will be released soon after the summit closes.

Additional Resources

G8 Heiligendamm Summit homepage: http://www.g-8.de/Webs/G8/EN/Homepage/home.html

ICTSD reporting; "Germany: G-8 Agreement on Climate Change," ASSOCIATED PRESS, 8 June 2007; "Merkel hails G8 climate pledge," FINANCIAL TIMES, 8 June 2007; "U.N. chief plans September meeting to focus on climate change initiatives," REUTERS, 8 June 2007; "NGOSs query Merkel’s G8 climate success," 8 June 2007; "US Compromise on Global Warming Plan Averts Impasse at Group of 8 Meeting; NEW YORK TIMES, 8 June 2007; "G-8 vows greenhouse gas curbs; US escapes targes," BLOOMBERG, 7 June 2007; "G8 leaders agree climate goals," 7 June 2007; "UN hails G8 as step towards global climate deal," REUTERS, 7 June 2007; "Environmentalists dismiss G8 climate deal," THE GUARDIAN, 7 June 2007.