Ban Ki-moon attacks climate change deal
Andrew Grice, The Independent 10 Jul 09;
Developing countries agreed last night to limit the rise in global temperatures due to climate change but rejected pleas by rich nations to sign up to a specific target to cut their carbon emissions.
A day after G8 leaders agreed to reduce their emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, nine developing nations, including China, India and Brazil, made clear a long, hard negotiation lies ahead if a new global deal on climate change is to be struck at crucial talks in Copenhagen in December.
At talks with the G8 leaders chaired by the US President, Barack Obama, the nine developing nations endorsed the G8's call for the average rise in global temperatures to be limited to C. But they stopped short of matching the G8's decision by agreeing to halve their emissions by 2050. Instead, they promised to discuss firm emissions reduction targets in the run-up to Copenhagen.
Mr Obama hailed the 17-nation agreement as an "unprecedented commitment" but admitted: "I am the first one to acknowledge that progress on this will not be easy." He added: "We did not expect to solve this problem in one summit, but I believe we have made some important strides forward.... We can either shape our future or we can let events shape it for us."
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General, criticised G8 leaders for not going further by setting interim targets for 2020 and to finance efforts by developing nations to embrace low carbon technology. He said: "The leaders of G8 must be aware of their historical responsibility for the future of humanity. There must be bold and ambitious targets so we can seal the deal."
The G5 nations – China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa – yesterday called for developed countries to cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2020. With 150 days to go to the Copenhagen summit, a crucial meeting will be held by the UN in New York on 22 September.
Gordon Brown struck a more upbeat note. He described yesterday's talks as "a significant moment on the road to Copenhagen", adding: "We have made huge progress."
Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said: "This is a very important step forward and shows politics catching up with the science of climate change. This will define the way governments have to deal with climate change not just in the coming months but for future generations."
But green groups expressed disappointment. Tom Picken, international climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "Despite their pledge to limit global warming to C, the [17-nation] Major Economies Forum [MEF] has one arm tied behind its back because rich countries meeting at the G8 failed to show leadership by slashing their own emissions first and fastest."
Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA's executive director, said: "The failure is one of leadership from the G8.When they try to blame China and India for the failure, their excuse will be hollow. It is hard to believe that any of the G8 heads of state had the audacity to look the leaders from the developing world at the MEF in the eyes and talk about joint action to protect the climate."
On its final day today, G8 leaders will approve a $15bn (£9bn) package to tackle hunger in the world's poorest countries as they agree to switch aid programmes from emergency relief to long-term agricultural projects.
Yesterday they set a deadline for a new global trade deal to be completed next year. Trade ministers will meet soon to try to kickstart the long-delayed Doha round. But such deadlines have been set before and not been met.
Ban criticises G8 climate efforts
BBC News 9 Jul 09;
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change.
On Wednesday, the leaders, meeting in Italy, agreed to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, but Mr Ban said big cuts were needed sooner rather than later.
The leaders are set to meet their counterparts from emerging economies to discuss a new deal on global warming.
US President Barack Obama will chair the session, in the city of L'Aquila.
The second day of the summit has begun, opening up its discussions to take in the so-called G5 nations - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Egypt is a special invitee.
The G8 leaders said on Wednesday they had agreed to try to limit global warming to just 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels.
That is the level above which, the United Nations says, the Earth's climate system would become dangerously unstable.
The G8 leaders also said rich nations should cut emissions by 80% by 2050 while the world overall should reduce them 50% by 2050.
But correspondents say emerging nations appear reluctant to sign up and tough negotiations lie ahead.
'Moral imperative'
Mr Ban said Wednesday's agreement was welcome, but the leaders needed to establish a strong and ambitious mid-term target for emissions cuts by 2020.
"This is politically and morally imperative and a historic responsibility for the leaders... for the future of humanity, even for the future of Planet Earth," he told the BBC.
Mr Ban said the leaders also had to come up with financial incentives for poorer countries to reduce pollution and aid to help them mitigate the effects of climate change.
President Obama will chair the Major Economies Forum meeting on Thursday afternoon.
The countries represented there account for some 80% of the emissions of gases that are blamed for global warming.
'Still time'
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins, in L'Aquila, says the talks with India and China will be difficult.
China's president has headed home to deal with the ethnic violence in Xinjiang, so there are now questions whether his delegation will be more cautious.
Our correspondent adds that India is already complaining that the G8's long-term targets for 2050 are too long-term and that G8 countries are ducking interim targets for 2020 which would make their 40-year ambitions more credible.
But in a meeting with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Mr Obama said there was still time to close the gap between developed and developing nations before UN talks on a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December.
The summit host, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has said a deal should be all-inclusive.
"It would not be productive if European countries, Japan, the United States and Canada accepted cuts that are economically damaging while more than five billion people in other countries carried on as before," he said.
The G8 summit began in L'Aquila on Wednesday, with the first day largely taken up with discussion of the fragile state of the global economy.
The leaders also issued a statement reaffirming that they were "deeply concerned" by Iran's nuclear programme and condemning North Korea's recent nuclear test and missile launches.
African leaders will join the summit on Friday to push for a new initiative to fund farming in the developing world and tackle global hunger.
UN Secretary-General calls for more ambitious targets as G8 Summit ends
UNEP 10 Jul 09;
L'Aquila (Italy), 10 July 2009 - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the G8 agreement on a long term goal to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, but says it is still not enough to reach a fair, effective climate agreement in Copenhagen Summit in December.
Mr. Ban called for more ambitious mid term emissions targets in order to ensure that a climate deal can be sealed at the Copenhagen meeting.
He urged developed countries in particular to lead by example by making firm commitments to reduce their emissions by 2020 on the order of 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that developing countries had their part to play by undertaking national efforts to cut their emissions and devising appropriate solutions to climate change challenges.
"Developing countries need funding and technology assistance. Funding is also needed to assist vulnerable developing countries adapt to the harmful effects of climate change." Mr. Ban said.
At a recent meeting held at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, African Environment Ministers pegged the cost of climate change adaptation at between $1 billion and $50 billion per year.
In their final declaration on Friday, G8 leaders identified financing as one of the three main tools to address climate change challenges along with technological innovation and capacity building. The leaders also stressed the need to move to a low-carbon economy in order to achieve continued economic growth and sustainable development - a move advocated by UNEP through the Global Green New Deal initiative.
The emphasis on climate change was echoed by the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which met in the margins of the G8 Summit and stated that "climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time".
"As leaders of the world's major economies, both developed and developing, we intend to respond vigorously to this challenge, being convinced that climate change poses a clear danger requiring an extraordinary global response, that the response should respect the priority of economic and social development of developing countries, that moving to a low-carbon economy is an opportunity to promote continued economic growth and sustainable development, that the need for and deployment of transformational clean energy technologies at lowest possible cost are urgent, and that the response must involve balanced attention to mitigation and adaptation," the declaration says.
"We resolve to spare no effort to reach agreement in Copenhagen, with each other and with the other Parties, to further implementation of the Convention," the Major Economies Forum added.
