Blurred vision afflicts the G8 powerhouses
Leaders of the Group of Eight countries representing the world’s richest economies are always an easy target when they get together.
Sections of the media cannot be blamed for focusing on forensic evidence of what was to eat and drink at the lavish dinners. Rarely is there anything positive to report and yesterday in the Japanese mountain resort of Toyako was no exception.
Apparently, after two days they shared a “vision”, which presumably either meant that they had seen the light or that the mineral water had been spiked with Sake.
Unfortunately we were left to consider only the latter and the result was a 50-year outlook on climate change that was considerably blurred.
Politicians are often vilified for not looking beyond the length of their own careers so we were asked to believe that a plan spanning half a century is in place to halve global carbon emissions in the fight against ruinous climate change.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the pledge a “significant step forward” from when she hosted the last G8 hot-air meeting when the parties agreed to “seriously consider” cuts in greenhouse gases.
This year’s host, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, must have relished a few days away from domestic trials and tribulations in the company of like-minded leaders – most of whom would also lose a popularity contest at home at the moment.
“It’s been a long road getting there. We had some very tough negotiations,” he said.
Ahead of today’s arrival of their counterparts from developing countries the Gang of Eight were singing from the George W Bush song sheet by insisting that the likes of China and India should make a similar commitment.
This was a giant step back, not forward. As United Nations scientists continue to call for more immediate action to reduce global warming South Africa’s environment minister said: “As it is expressed in the G8 statement, the long-term goal is an empty slogan without substance.”
Daniel Mittler, a climate change expert at Greenpeace International, added that the world got flowery words instead of action. “The Texas oilman has once again prevented the G8 from undergoing the energy revolution it needs. Bush is a lame duck, so who cares what he thinks about 2050,” he said.
With the US economy in dire straits and the cost of oil reaching record levels, climate change is unlikely to be an issue when worried Americans pick the next president in November so, on this issue at least, both Barack Obama and John McCain will be spared from making campaign promises they will not keep.
So far in their quest for the White House they have merely told voters that stronger action was needed. After all, there is no point upsetting the powerful energy lobby in the world’s biggest polluting country at this sensitive stage of proceedings.
It later emerged, of course, that the “vision” seen at Toyako was no more than an apparition. It was not legally binding.