G8 leak slammed by environmentalists
A leaked draft communique on climate change has attracted the ire of campaigners for seeming to water down the G8’s commitment to act.
A previous leaked version treated climate change – and mankind’s responsibility for it – as fact and promised funding for new, clean, energy projects.
But the latest version has deleted proposals to fund research and the words “our world is warming” appear in square brackets. This indicates that at least one country, most likely the US, disagrees with them.
A Government spokesman stressed that there were always multiple drafts of documents, saying that the only communique that mattered was the one at the end of the Gleneagles summit.
The UK has promised to make climate change and Africa its G8 priorities. And whilst there does seem to have been movement on debt relief for Africa, it is known that America remains implacably opposed to the Kyoto Treaty and is reluctant to accept there is any evidence for global warming.
Friends of the Earth campaigner Catherine Pearce said that the negotiations on climate change “seem to be going backwards.”
Ms Pearce said: “Every reference to the urgency of action or the need for real cuts in emissions has been deleted or challenged. Nothing in this text recognises the scale or urgency of the crisis of climate change.
“If they can’t do better than this, the outcome of G8 summit will be worse that hot air: it will be a backward step in international climate change policy, simply adding to climate injustice.”
FOE is demanding a full plan of action to tackle climate change with targets, timetables and extra funding.
