Experts argue that the G8 has to engage emerging economies such as Brazil to address the challenges of climate change. Photo Credit: Flickr

The climate change accord clinched at the G8 summit in the seaside resort of Heiligendamm has given rise to satisfaction and skepticism among experts.

The agreement Thursday (June 7) has \"paved the way for negotiations in Bali in December and given climate talks under the auspices of the UN a considerable boost,\" said Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

\"The multilateral climate change process under the United Nations has been reenergized,\" he said. \"This is a breakthrough in terms of making progress towards an enhanced future climate change regime and will send important signals to developing countries on the readiness of industrialized nations and emerging economies to act,\" he added.

According to the Friends of the Earth International Climate Change campaigner Yuri Onodera, G8 nations had so far failed to take their historical responsibilities seriously and pay the ecological debt they owe to the people in poorer countries.

Alluding to the large emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, the UN's top climate change official said: \"There is now a need to engage these economies on how best to address the challenges of climate change. It is very encouraging that the G8 is ready to work with the +5 countries on long-term strategies and that major emitters of the process will report back to the UNFCCC by 2008.\"

According to the G8 communiqué, negotiations under the UNFCCC should be finished by 2009. This would give governments enough time to ratify the agreement before the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The G8 statement said: \"We are committed to moving forward in that forum and call on all parties to actively and constructively participate in the UN ClimateChange Conference in Indonesia in December 2007 with a view to achieving a comprehensive post 2012-agreement (post Kyoto-agreement) that should include all major emitters.\"

But Friends of the Earth International Climate Change campaigner Yuri Onodera said: \"We have already seen many empty promises by G8 leaders over the past years but there has not been much real action, so we urge G8 leaders to act now and cut their greenhouse gas emissions drastically and immediately.\"

G8 nations had so far failed to take their historical responsibilities seriously and pay the ecological debt they owe to the people in poorer countries who are suffering from the consequences of the current unsustainable development model, Onodera said.

But he welcomed that \"the U.S. administration, which continuously obstructed the fight against climate change, did not manage to prevent world leaders here from pledging that they will take multilateral action.\"

Collectively the G8 countries, which represent just 13 percent of the world\'s population, are responsible for around 43 percent of the world\'s greenhouse gas emissions.

Collectively the G8 -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, Japan and Russia -- which represent just 13 per cent of the world\'s population, are responsible for around 43 per cent of the world\'s greenhouse gas emissions.

All countries except the U.S. and Russia made a non-binding pledge to cut the climate change-causing gases by at least half by 2050. Scientists say that such a cut is necessary to try and keep the increase in global average temperatures below two degrees centigrade from pre-industrial levels.

Agreeing with UNFCCC\'s Executive Secretary, Germanwatch NGO\'s political director Chritoph Bals said the G8 accord had \"pushed open the door to serious UN climate change negotiations\". He pointed out that all G8 nations had agreed to take note of and expressed concern about the recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

The declaration said: \"The most recent report concluded both, that global temperatures are rising, that this is caused largely by human activities and, in addition, that for increases in global average temperature, there are projected to be major changes in ecosystem structure and function with predominantly negative consequences for biodiversity and ecosystems, e.g. water and food supply.\"

Bals said the G8 had also recognized the need for legally binding UN accord that envisages substantial greenhouse gas reductions. The statement said: \"Taking into account the scientific knowledge as represented in the recent IPCC reports, global greenhouse gas emissions must stop rising, followed by substantial global emission reductions.\"

The Germanwatch said: \"In setting a global goal for emissions reductions in the process we have agreed today involving all major emitters, we will consider seriously the decisions made by the European Union, Canada and Japan which include at least a halving of global emissions by 2050.\"

UNFCCC\'s Executive Secretary de Boer said: \"It will now be critical to have everything in place so that the negotiation process can be set in motion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali in December of this year.\"

One key focus of the document is on adaptation, with G8 leaders acknowledging that considerable funds will be needed to above all enable the most vulnerable to adapt to the inevitable effects climate change and expressing a willingness to work with developing countries on the issues.

Germanwatch NGO\'s political director Chritoph Bals said the G8 accord had \"pushed open the door to serious UN climate change negotiations\".

Another key element of the document, according to the UNFCCC, is the call to expand the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM permits industrialized countries to invest in sustainable development projects in developing countries, and thereby generate tradable emission credits.

The Kyoto Protocol presently requires 36 industrialized countries and the European Community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels in its first commitment period between 2008 and 2012.

The CDM is currently undergoing a boom and is expected to generate around two billion in certified emission reductions (CERs) by 2012. One CER amounts to one tonne of CO2 equivalent.

According to de Boer, such mechanisms need to be part of any meaningful post-2012 climate change regime. \"If half of the emission reductions would be met through investments in developing countries, for example via the CDM, there is a potential to generate up to 100 billion dollars per year in green investment flows to developing countries.\"

The door has been opened for working towards a self-financing climate compact. None of the other types of financial resources available to developing countries have a potential of this scale, he added.




Contributed by Ramesh Jaura, a journalist and publisher of Global South, a monthly Internet publication. Reprinted with permission from OneWorld.net.

To read another Global Envision article about the 2007 G8 Summit, see G8 Summit and Climate Change.



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