Greenwashing

From June 25 to 27 Toronto, Canada, hosted the 2010 G8 and G20 summits. Organizers boasted that it would be a Green event but environmental activists have said a few solar panels will not offset the fact that Green initiatives were given very little space on the topic agendas. 

“The greenest thing about the G20 is its ability to reuse and recycle earlier commitments,” said Ashwini Prabha of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).  

Advocacy groups were pleased that government leaders renewed their commitment to green initiatives likes reforming fossil fuel subsidies and keeping the rise in global temperatures below 2°C. However, they expressed disappointment that no new details were given for how governments would achieve these commitments.

“In Canada the leaders failed to take the next step to indicate their global level of ambition and agree on a clear timeline to achieve what they promise,” said Kim Carstensen.

Greenwashing

Event planners said that the “summit greening plan” placed environmental concerns at the forefront of managing the G8 and G20 summits. The Canadian government said that the summit would be carbon-neutral. To achieve this it said that the event would use green transportation, green venues and green power.

 “Next to none of the byproducts of the two events will end up in landfills,” added Peter Kent, Canadian minister of state of foreign affairs.

But activists from Greenpeace and the WWF were not won over.

“The [Canadian] government should invest in real renewable energy instead of greenwashing at the G8/G20 summits,” said Dave Martin, climate and energy policy adviser for Greenpeace.