2007 has been abuse with one big topic climate change. The topic has meant that reporting and focus from news sources has been concentrated around this topics and issues which both cause and mitigate it. This has meant that C02, carbon trading, and renewable energy have been the hot topics to date this year. With the G8 leaders set to meet in Heiligendamm in Germany this coming week there signs that this could be a very prominent and tough topic on the agenda.
Germany is this year using it’s presidency of the G8 in combination with that of the European Union to set new a tone on issues it sees at the forefront of the world today. Already back in 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland Tony Blair was pushing the issue of climate change. A communiqué was signed which basically recognized the problem of climate change and that there was an urgency to act. The G8 nations at that point also agreed to look to share best practices and involve nations in a collective dialogue to work on the issue. Two years later on and there has been very little collective action from the G8 nations. While the European Union has gotten tough and just recently announced very ambitious goals both at the national as well as supernational levels, little progress has been seen from other nations. The G8 group of nations is not a formal organization such as the United Nations, however this exclusive club has the power to make sweeping reforms and set global agendas .
Already before the summit is set to get under way next week there has been a heated debate between Germany and United States. Germany is looking to already agree to some set targets during the course of the conference which would be binding. With the United States being the biggest opponent to these targets the stage is set for a show down on the world stage. At the moment Chancellor Merkel is heavily favoring this approach to a United Nations agreement. The reasons for this are all too clear after the clear breakdown and failure to get some of the most important nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012 is long overdue for a redraft , as the world and the state of emissions has changed dramatically since its inception. Part of the problem has been that like with trade agreements there is no effective supernational organization which is capable of forcing all parties to ratify or agree on a framework. Some G8 leaders have already spoken in support of attempting to agree on a framework which can be used going forward. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had only last week outlined goals which she had hoped to present of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and cut C02 levels by 50% of 1990 levels by 2050.
President George Bush of the United States has now come out boasting an alternative plan which would be much less ambitious and outside of the G8 framework. The president who all along has been against setting an binding goals wants to host a series of talks by the end of 2008. The talks would involve the G8 plus a host of other nations such as India, China, South Africa, and Brazil. President Bush has also urged more focus on technology and cutting of tariffs on renewable energy products. This is widely being seen as a way of buying another 18 months and considering this comes at the end of President Bush’s term in office a way of holding off on the issue until it is too late. Already last week, Speaker Nancy Peloisi leader of the Democratic opposition visited Germany to meet with Chancellor Merkel and voice support for the plan.
The ultimate irony of the G8 discussions on climate change is that the outcomes of talks on this issue will be critical to another issue on the agenda, that of poverty in Africa and Africa at large. The effects of climate change are being felt most by the poorer parts of the world at this point. Yet as the economic growth begins to pick up in the developing world CO2 emissions will also rapidly increase here. China which is a separate case all together has already serious rethought the cost of C02 to its economic growth and has set a serious environmental agenda.
The meeting, whatever the outcome promises to be a very interesting one. In the meantime most experts are in agreement that there is only one way forward which is to come create a framework to share the burden of this global problem collectively and create a single market and common approach.
For additional information:
http://www.g-8.de/Webs/G8/EN/Homepage/home.html
