NGOs dissapointed by G8 outcome

Non governmental organizations are disappointed by the results of the Group of Eight discussions on climate change after the three-day G-8 summit meeting ended Wednesday in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, saying the leaders “failed to make progress” on an agreement reached at last year’s summit in Germany.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the 2008 Japan G8 Summit NGO Forum, made up of 141 NGOs, announced that the result of the summit was “far from satisfactory”. Masako Hoshino, co-chair of the forum, said the creation of the NGO forum had brought certain positive results in terms of holding dialogue with the G-8 countries. However, she said: “Although our voices were heard on some occasions, it’s difficult to say if the dialogue had any influence on the G-8 discussions.”

The agreement on climate change was “very disappointing,” for forum vice chairperson Yurika Ayukawa, who has been working on the issue for more than 10 years. “We were asking G-8 countries to set long- and medium-term goals because we believe setting a midterm goal will help create a framework in which developing countries will agree to participate,” she said. “But there were no new figures included in the G-8 agreement so, of course, there were no new figures in the Major Economies Meeting agreement. I think it’s a step backward from the Heiligendamm summit last year.”

Meanwhile, scientists say that the summit has shown signs of progress: “There were fears that nothing would be decided on climate change at the summit. In light of this, the G-8 agreement was a step forward, albeit a very small step,” said Mikiko Kainuma, climate policy assessment project leader at the Japanese National Institute of Environmental Studies.

Kainuma worked on the latest assessment report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dealing with a long-term scenario. She presently is working on the IPCC’s next report.

“Requesting the other parties [to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change] to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050 means the G-8 nations themselves have to do that,” she said.

At the MEM on Wednesday, major emitters such as China and India made no remarks in support of the G-8 agreement, while Australia, Indonesia and South Korea promptly expressed their intention to aim for the specified target.

“The only way to convince emerging countries to take necessary measures to tackle climate change is for G-8 countries to demonstrate models of so-called low carbon societies,” she said. Kainuma added that agreeing on a long-term goal was the most important factor, as it would allow a midterm goal to be calculated.

NGO members also criticized the G-8’s agreement on the food crisis issue. Anil Singh, secretary general of the South Asian Network for Social and Agricultural Development based in India, said the G-8 statement on food security contained “no commitment.” The leaders have tasked the G-8 Experts Group on food security to help realize a global partnership on the issue. But Singh said: “It’s a monitoring group. There is no commitment.”

SANSAD has demanded the G-8 impose restrictions on biofuel production, saying the increasing trend of encouraging biofuel production is reducing the amount of land used to produce agricultural crops. But the G-8 statement only cited the need to “ensure the compatibility of policies for the sustainable production and use of biofuels with food security.” Singh said he had expected a more concrete agreement. “This is the biggest crisis in the last 100 years. I’m very disappointed,” he said.