G8 moving 'further apart' on climate change
By Jeremy Lovell 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The world's richest nations are moving even further away from agreement on climate change just days before their summit in Scotland, according to their latest draft declaration.
Stark differences between the United States and the other members of the Group of Eight (G8) nations are clear from the text, drafted for the senior officials known as sherpas preparing the summit for their leaders.
Environmentalists are calling on Britain's Prime Minister
Tony Blair, the G8 president, to signal an open rift with Washington rather than agree a watered down text.
The G8 is deadlocked on global warming, unable to agree its severity, causes or how to tackle it, according to the text seen by Reuters.
A paragraph stating that "climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe" is in square brackets, indicating it is under question.
And a reference in an earlier draft to a joint declaration in early June by top scientists from all G8 nations that human activities were a significant contributor to global warming has been removed completely.
Another paragraph refers to a predicted 60 percent growth in global energy demands over the next 25 years, but a section stating "we know that we need to slow, stop and then reverse the growth in greenhouse gases" is also under question.
"If anything this draft is weaker than the one that was on the table before," Jennifer Morgan, climate change expert at the World-Wide Fund for nature, told Reuters.
"If this is agreed as it stands without the sections under question, then it is actually taking us backwards not forwards," she said.
Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth said: "No deal is better than a deal on this document. Rather than trying to paper over the differences with Bush, Blair should publicly signal a rift with the United States."
The leaders of the G8 as well as major developing nations China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa meet amid high security near Edinburgh from Wednesday to Friday next week.
Blair has made tackling climate change and relieving African poverty the twin goals of his year-long presidency of the G8.
But while he has made some headway on Africa, he has been stymied on climate change at every turn by the United States.
In a major policy speech on Thursday,
President Bush offered to double U.S. aid to Africa but made no mention at all of global warming.
Scientists have warned that the climate could warm by more than two degrees centigrade by the end of the century because of greenhouse gases from activities like burning fossil fuels.
The Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions of carbon dioxide finally came into force in February this year without the participation of the world's biggest polluter -- the United States, which argues it is economic suicide.
Its opposition is highlighted by the fact a section in the draft text for the G8 summit at the Gleneagles hotel 40 miles northwest of Edinburgh referring to the Kyoto signatories making the agreement a success is also under question.
Environmentalists say Blair faces a stark choice -- to be vilified for signing up to a G8 climate declaration that is meaningless or to abandon his ally Bush and announce a failure. |
