G8 makes ‘real and definite progress’
The G8 has made “real and definite progress” on tackling the twin problems of global poverty and climate change, Tony Blair said today.
Speaking at the end of the two-day summit in Gleneagles, the prime minister said the meeting finished in the “shadow of terror” but stressed this would not obscure what the leaders of the world’s richest countries were trying to do.
Instead, the package of measures to help Africa and tackle global warming would offer a contrast to the hatred and fear that the terrorists responsible for yesterday’s attacks in London intended to provoke.
“[Terrorism] is by its savagery designed to cover all conventional politics in darkness, to overwhelm the dignity of democracy and proper process with the impact of bloodshed,” Mr Blair said.
“It is hope that is the alternative to this hatred. We offer today this contrast with the politics of terror.”
The prime minister said the G8 had agreed $50 billion in aid for Africa, debt forgiveness for the poorest nations and a commitment to invest in trade capacity in the continent.
The agreement would also achieve “as close as possible to universal access” to Aids drugs, while it committed the G8 nations to widen education in the developing world and to train 20,000 more peacekeepers.
A new plan of action was also set up in partnership with African leaders in which they agreed to commit to democracy, good governance and the rule of law, while the G8 leaders agreed a commitment to invest in trade capacity on the continent.
And although Mr Blair conceded that he would have liked to have agreed a “specific end date” for export subsidies in the western world, he said he believed a date could be set at the forthcoming World Trade Organisation talks.
“This will not bring an end to poverty but it brings hope that it can be ended…It is a collective will to act in the face of conflict and poverty that is preventable,” Mr Blair said.
The summit also reached a new dialogue with developing economies on emissions control and an acceptance of “our duty to be responsible stewards of the global economy”.
The world leaders agreed that climate change was a problem that needed “urgent action” to be tackled, that it was caused by human activity and that progress would require cuts in emissions.
A plan of action to “slow down and then reverse” the rise in greenhouse gases had also been agreed, he said, which would begin with a meeting on November 1st in Britain.
In addition, the G8 agreed $3 billion for the Palestinian authority over the coming years so that “two nations – Israel and Palestine – two peoples and two religions can live side by side in peace”.
“All of this will not change the world tomorrow. It is a beginning, not an end,” the prime minister said.
But he said the “pride, the hope, the humanity” at the heart of the agreement would “lift the shadow of terrorism and light the way to a better future”.
