EU-DIGEST

Russia uncertain about climate plan

During the summit, the G8 industrialized nations and the nine most important emerging powers agreed that developed countries as a whole should cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent but the declaration was promptly undermined when Russia said such a target was unattainable and unacceptable. Obama said, however, that he did not expect an instant meeting of minds. 'And while we don't expect to solve the problem in one meeting, or one summit. I believe we have made important strides forward,' he said. 'I don't think I have to emphasise that climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. The science is clear and conclusive and impacts can no longer be ignored. 'Ice sheets are melting. Sea levels are rising. Our oceans are becoming more acidic, and we've already seen its effects on weather patterns, our food and water sources, our health and our habitats,' he said.

Labels: G8, Global warming, Greenhouse warming, Russia

Israeli strike on Iran would be 'catastrophe': Sarkozy

A unilateral attack by Israel against Iran to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions would be an "absolute catastrophe", French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Thursday. Sarkozy was speaking after a summit of G8 and other leaders in Italy at which they agreed on the need to pursue a negotiated deal with Tehran to halt a programme which Western powers fear hides a plan to acquire nuclear weapons.

Labels: EU, G8

The Group of Eight rich nations and the Group of 5 emerging economies say they have reached several agreements at their three-day summit in Italy. Also, world leaders there said they'll complete the long-stalled Doha trade talks in 2010.

Note EU-Digest: agreements reached at the G8 meeting in Italy were mainly commitments to achieve agreements on several pending issues during a period of several years. The G8 has basically has ceased to be major decision making group as the G20 is growing in importance.

Labels: G8

China Looks to G8, EU for More Trade, Stable System

Three months after his previous visit, China’s President Hu Jintao is again in Europe, now in Italy, along with a delegation of 300. This time the focus of the delegation is mainly on investment instead of sourcing. President Hu is also there to attend a dialogue between the G8 and developing countries to be held in Italy on July 9. It has been thought likely China will again raise the idea of a super-sovereign currency at this meeting, but the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied it. Vice-Minister He Yafei said at a July 2 briefing that China hoped to see a stabilized dollar rate and a diversified international monetary system in the future. The Chinese central bank’s signals over the yuan, the US dollar, and the IMF’s SDR as a super-sovereign currency have stirred up some confusion over its intentions, but top Chinese leaders continue to repeat the need to establish a diversified international monetary system.

Labels: China, EU, G8

Early On, Europe Is Out Front in Overhaul of Global Financial System - by Anthony Faiola

Europe is moving rapidly to overhaul the global financial system in the wake of the economic crisis, pushing through new measures and proposing others that could impose significant restrictions on American and other firms based far beyond its borders.The Europeans are now out front, for instance, in setting strict new standards for rating agencies and risk management at firms selling mortgage-backed securities. Europe has also seized the initiative in developing new rules to monitor hedge funds while forging ahead this week with plans to create two new powerful regulatory agencies in Europe, according to analysts and regulators.

Under a draft proposal issued by the European Commission, the ruling body of the 27-member European Union, U.S. hedge funds may have to subject themselves to tight European oversight or be barred from doing business with European clients. The scope of these efforts is generating a measure of friction, with U.S. officials as well as among some Europeans who favor a more cautious approach toward regulation, such as the British. The sense of alarm is even greater among financial firms that fear Washington may ultimately follow the path set by the Europeans -- historically more disposed to regulation than Americans.

Note EU-Digest: At least as a first step this is excellent policy by the EU to avoid future financial disasters as the one we are presently experiencing world-wide.

Labels: EU, Financial Regulatory Controls, G8

Russia's Medvedev supports G-8 meeting on economy

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday he supports holding an emergency meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations to discuss the global financial crisis. Medvedev said he had discussed the idea with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, adding that consultations between the G-8 members are going on, but no time or venue has been set for the summit yet. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations will meet Friday to discuss the economic meltdown. One of the potential remedies expected to be discussed at the meeting in Washington is for governments to guarantee lending between banks. Medvedev told reporters it would make sense to invite other leading economic powers to join the G-8 meeting.

Labels: G7, G8, Russia, The US economic meltdown

G8 losing relevance in new global reality by David Crane

We live in a global economy, yet we have no effective system to manage a global economy. That’s one reason the world is in such a mess today. If you want evidence of this look at the current state of the world’s economy — soaring oil prices, a food crisis, the risks of stagflation and protectionism, climate change, growing competition for natural resources and great inequality. The G8 leaders from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Italy and Canada like to think they are the ones who can take charge of the big global challenges. But as their recent annual summit in Japan showed, this is a pipe dream.

So a top priority has to be a new consensus on how we manage the global system in the years ahead without conflict, environmental disaster or a world of competing protectionist blocs, and how leaders of the major nations can help provide effective ways of dealing with challenges in a way that supports the work of the UN and the various multilateral institutions.

Labels: G8

US, France clash over G8 expansion

The United States and France clashed Monday over plans to accommodate India, China and other large developing countries into the Group of Eight (G8) of industrialized countries, according to Japanese media reports quoting officials from both sides.In an interview given to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper prior to his departure for Japan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said G8 annual summits should also include China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

Labels: Air France, Council of Europe, G8, Russia; US, Sarkozy

G8 leaders feast on 8 courses after discussing world food shortages

Food shortages and the need to double African production may dominate the G8 summit but even as they discussed the problems of the developing world yesterday, the leaders of the world’s richest nations, joined by several African leaders, ate course after course of fine food. The leaders tucked into truffle soup and crab as they discussed Zimbabwe and aid to Africa’s poorest people. The evening feast of 19 separate dishes included diced fatty flesh of tuna fish and milk-fed lamb with aromatic herbs. Tomorrow, after working up an appetite discussing soaring food prices, the leaders will enjoy a EURO 225 per person dinner of giant crab, EURO 75-a-kilogram langoustine and sweet clover ice cream, prepared by Michel Bras, a Michelin three-star French chef.

Dominic Nutt, of Save the Children, said: “It is deeply hypocritical [that] they should be lavishing course after course on world leaders when there is a food crisis and millions cannot afford to eat.”

Labels: G8

Germany in Hot Seat as G8 Pushes Nuclear Power

Moves to boost the role of nuclear power in the global energy mix at this week's summit of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial nations could be the most difficult issue for German Chancellor Merkel.Speaking ahead of her trip to Japan for the G8 summit, Merkel lashed out at the decision to end nuclear power in Germany, saying it was "absolutely wrong." She repeated her call for a mix of energy sources for Europe's biggest economy including fossil fuels and renewable power as well nuclear plans.

Labels: EU, G8, Germany

The G8 Climate Scorecard

The international climate change debate has gained momentum and the urgent need for action has become obvious. This action-oriented approach led WWF and Allianz SE, Dow Jones Sustainability Index leader in the insurance sector, to publish the G8 Climate Scorecards. They give a transparent account of the climate profile of the leading industrialized countries. They are intended to contribute to laying the groundwork for a productive international climate debate. The overall question is: How do the G8 Nations ensure the world’s long-term interest of keeping climate change under control and moving towards a low carbon economy? We also included scorecards for the five emerging countries, Brazil China, India, Mexico and South Africa to round out the picture. Ultimately, the G8 Climate Scorecards should help policy makers and a wider public to identify the path leading to a global low carbon economy.

Labels: G8, G8 Summit

Don't burn food: biofuels standards needed now

Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico2 to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off. How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food. Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels--alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people.Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming.

It's time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world's carbon emissions, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8's climate change discussions.

Before the summit, it is time to raise a global cry for change on biofuels: go to: http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60268287
A call for change before this week's summit won't end the food crisis, or stop global warming. But it's a critical first step. By confronting false solutions and demanding real ones, we can show our leaders that we want to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

Labels: Biofuels, EU, G8, Global warming, Japan, US

Confused behaviour of President Sarkozy at G8 Summit Press conference - was he drunk? - by Tim King

"It is not sure if Nicolas Sarkozy’s performance at his first major international press conference (G8 Summit) was taken up by the British press. Here (in France) there is something less than enthusiasm for writing about it, although the video is circulating on the web. It’s hard to believe it’s genuine – the way he moves is so odd it looks faked. Certainly if it isn’t, then his behaviour is extremely strange. Some people say he was drunk (Sarkozy claims he doesn’t touch alcohol), others that he was stoned, yet others that he had OD-ed on vitamins. If the video is genuine then he is acting as if he were all those things at once?"

For a YouTube clip from this press conference click on this link and judge for yourself

Labels: France, G8, Sarkozy

G8 summit's inability to agree targets to cut emissions represents a failure of leadership - by Tim Yeo

Tony Blair and Angela Merkel put a brave face on the G8 summit, but the truth is that the world is more likely to experience dangerous climate change than it was a week ago. Even rose-tinted spectacles cannot conceal the fact that the outcome falls woefully short of what is needed. Far from being a breakthrough, President George Bush's belated acceptance that the United States must be involved in discussions about the post-Kyoto framework was the least he could do.

Labels: G8, Pollution and the environment

So is the world a better place after the G8 summit? The answer might surprise you - by Geoffrey Lean and Raymond Whitaker

When George Bush first met Angela Merkel, shortly after she became the Chancellor of Germany 18 months ago, he thought he had finally found a friend from "Old Europe". Believing - like British ministers at the time - that the right-wing former East German would be far less interested in the environment than the red-green government she had toppled - he patronizingly suggested that they could forget the Kyoto protocol.

"Mr President, you are mistaken," Mrs Merkel announced, drawing herself up to her full 5ft 8in. "I am one of those responsible for the protocol." And she told him how, as her country's environment minister, she had chaired the meeting that had made the crucial breakthrough on the road to Kyoto, and then led its negotiating team when the treaty was agreed.

Labels: Bush, G8, Merkel, Sarkozy, Tony Blair

Violence Mars G8 Protest In Germany

Protesters are expected to block roads leading to the leaders' summit. They may also disrupt the arrival of delegates with their plan to blockade the nearby military airport at Rostock-Laage early next week. Trouble may also flare after authorities refused permission for a demonstration by the far-right National Democrats (NPD) to go ahead in nearby Schwerin.

Labels: G8, Germany

Protesters gather for G-8 summit - by David Rising

Rostock, Germany - Buses and trains from across Europe streamed into the northern port city of Rostock on Saturday, bringing thousands of protesters to the largest-yet demonstration over the upcoming G-8 meeting of industrialized powers. "The world shaped by the dominance of the G-8 is a world of war, hunger, social divisions, environmental destruction and barriers against migrants and refugees," organizers said in leaflets handed out on the streets. "We want to protest against this and show the alternatives."

In the morning, protesters were gathering at two meeting points in town, to march along two different three-mile routes into downtown Rostock and converge in the late afternoon at the harbor for speeches, followed by a concert.

Labels: Council of Europe, G8, Germany, Rostock

Preview: G8 summit is key diplomatic challenge for savvy Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has built up a formidable reputation as a tough and savvy negotiator. Her diplomatic skills will be severely tested, however, at next week's meeting of the world's leading industrialized nations.The German leader has made clear she will still press G8 leaders to commit to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to two degrees Celsius. Other Europeans have taken a tougher line. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a recent interview that he wanted Washington to adopt a more ambitious position, including backing for binding emission targets.

Labels: EU, G8, Merkel, USA

US, other G8 members split on climate change

Differences between the United States and other Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries were highlighted on the closing day of an environment ministers' conference in Potsdam near Berlin that ended on Saturday. German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the US, by contrast with other members of the G8, did not want to participate in paying financial compensation to developing countries for progress in combating climate change. This affected countries like Brazil, where there had been considerable success in reforesting the Amazon rainforest, Gabriel said. Germany currently holds the G8 presidency.

A second point of conflict was the US refusal to back the Emissions Trading Scheme operating in Europe that allows companies in energy-intensive industries to trade carbon-dioxide emissions.

Labels: Environment: climate change, G8, Pollution and the environment