The G8 on energy and climate: all talk, no action

At the start of this month, the leaders of the G8 (the eight richest industrialised nations) met in Scotland for their annual get together to discuss issues of common interest. The mainstream media focus was on Climate Change and Africa, but behind the scenes Trade, the Global Economy, and Iraq were also on the agenda. In the run up to the summit, the communique on Climate and Energy – especially – was watered down with each successive (leaked) draft, apparently under pressure from the U.S. administration, and the final document – whilst making broad statements about partnerships and cooperation – utterly failed to include any specific targets or timetables for vital at-source emissions reductions. Campaign groups such as Friends of the Earth, and grassroots groups of protesters gathered in Scotland, were quick to condemn the outcome as a farce – all talk and no action.

Outside of Fortress Gleneagles, protests and creative resistance to the G8′s agenda, and the lack of real action on Climate Change flourished around the world during the summit…

In the U.S. several hundred people, including leaders from faith, student and community groups showed their commitment to getting the US to take action by fasting during the three days of the G8 summit, urging President Bush to make a commitment to reduce global warming pollution, and face up to the reality that 94 percent of the U.S. public support limiting greenhouse gas emissions (University of Maryland poll).

In Scotland, activists shut down main roads leading to the summit on the first day, and on the final day of the summit, a call to action on the root causes of climate change saw a mass blockade of the A74 bridge over the river Clyde in Glasgow (a road scheduled for carbon-guzzling expansion) and an afternoon-long street party.

The G8 outcome documents

Specific documents of interest on Climate & Energy:

Climate Change Chapeau
Climate Change Plan of Action
Global Economy & Oil

Finally, there is loads of independent non-commercial coverage of the G8 on Indymedia

On 8th July activists, students, religious groups, and concerned citizens around the world will be taking action against the root causes of climate change. It will be the last day of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and a key opportunity to create a wide-reaching shift in climate change and energy policy worldwide.

The Bush administration is now completely isolated on climate change. A poll that came out yesterday showed 83% support in the UK for Blair confronting Bush head on on climate, and the same day the Royal Society — one of the most respected scientific institutions in Europe — gave damning criticism of the Bush administration’s refusal to budge on energy and climate change policy:

A communiqué that does anything other than clearly accept the strength of the scientific evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change, and offers a firm commitment to long-term substantial cuts in those emissions, will be regarded as a failure by the scientific community and a missed opportunity of historic proportions. — Stephen Cox, executive secretary of the Royal Society

This is not some group of eco-hippies.

The international pressure on Blair, as current chair of the G8, is growing, and we have to use this momentum to drive a political wedge between Bush and Blair, isolate the U.S. administration even further, to such an extent that the U.S. public and mainstream media wake up and stop buying the ‘uncertainty’ and denial rubbish the Bush administration keeps pumping out.

What are you doing on 8th July? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the debate on climate change is over. It is time to act.

The scientific consensus is unprecedented, and evidence keeps pouring in. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment synthesis report showed us that climate destabilisation is already happening–right now–and much faster than we anticipated.

So what should we expect from our ‘world leaders’ at the G8 next month? Perhaps some visionary steps forward, towards a clean renewable-energy future? Bold targets for real at-source cuts to take us to sustainable greenhouse gas emissions levels? Well, that’s what we should expect, and it’s what we continue to demand, but it’s not what we’re getting. (California excepted.)

Our world is warming… erm… (maybe)

That’s the clear, visionary message from the ‘leaders’ of the world:

In draft international document land (somewhere I’ve spent rather too many long days) those square brackets mean something is still uncertain, disputed, and open for debate. The first leaked draft was bad enough, with no timetables or targets for emissions cuts. Now we see the reality of Blair’s ‘leadership’ on climate change: no targets, no timeframes, “zero carbon nuclear,” clean coal, and he hasn’t even managed to secure a recognition that our world is warming. It seems we have a problem.

You can download the latest leaked draft (two pdf documents) on the Channel Four News website. I’ve also mirrored it here.

Leaked Draft Communique [mirror]
Leaked Draft Plan of Action [mirror]

California is officially going for it. Arnold ‘Governator’ Schwarzenegger earlier this week signed an executive order setting huge green house gas emissions reduction targets for the state: 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, just the kind of real target people who are serious about halting climate change have been demanding for years. I expect Bush is going to be livid! Nice one Arnie.

This the just kind of thing Blair needs to pull out if he’s going to get any respect for his so called ‘leadership’ on climate change at the g8. The leaked draft climate and energy communique quite simply didn’t cut it.

This landed in my inbox this morning. I won’t say where from. It should be of interest to anyone mobilising around the climate focus of the G8, or working on exposing the false ‘solutions’ coming out of the Kyoto Protocol. It’s sick to see so much of the carbon trading / clean development mechanism rubbish now being echoed by the G8 at a time when we need real leadership and socially just solutions to climate change.

• read the leaked decisions online
• download pdf copy (442 kb)