G8 Summit to Cover GM Foods, Climate Change
TOKYO, Japan, July 14, 2000 (ENS) - Genetically modified foods,
infectious diseases and information technology will be the three
main themes at the annual G8 summit next weekend, according to
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Environmental issues of
climate change, forests and guidelines for funding sustainable
development projects will also be covered.
The summit will be held July 21-23 in Nago City, Okinawa. The
elected leaders of Japan, the United States, France, Russia,
Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the European
Commission will attend.
The summit has been preceded by meetings of environment, finance
and foreign ministers who mapped out positions the leaders will
address in Japan.
Prime Minister Mori said June 5 during a speechto a discussion
group on the summit that the issue of food safety before the
summit mainly concerns genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
"I believe that biotechnology, together with IT [information
technology], is a key to ensuring the prosperity of humanity in
the 21st century," he said.
Acknowledging the "conflicting opinions in the United States and
Europe on this issue," Prime Minister Mori said all countries
"share the position that international rules based on scientific
underpinning should be established on the treatment of GMOs. At
the same time, since a great deal of time is taken to conduct
scientific analysis, positions on regulations on GMOs
significantly differ from those who adopt the benefit of the
doubt approach and those who adopt the precautionary approach."
The Prime Minister expressed patience with the time consuming
studies and negotiations surrounding genetic engineering. "The
issue of how to best make use of the immense potential of
biotechnology while giving due consideration to its impact on the
environment and health and the concerns of consumers, is an
enormously important one that cannot be resolved overnight," he
said.
"Studies have been conducted after the Cologne Summit by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and
others, and issues are being sorted out. I hope that we will be
able to find a common direction in Okinawa," the Prime Minister
said.
G8 environment ministers and European Environment Commissioner
Margot Wallström met in Otsu, Japan April 7 to 9 for talks on
international sustainable development issues before next
weekend's summit.
Wallström expressed her satisfaction with the outcome of the
meeting on climate change issues. She said the outlook is bright
for success of the sixth conference of Parties to the UN climate
change treaty (COP6) at The Hague in November. This meeting is
expected to finalize the mechanisms for implementation of the
1997 Kyoto Protocol which commits 39 industrialized nations to
reduce their emissions of six heat trapping greenhouse gases
linked to global warming.
"I think it is crucial that we, as G8 countries, have committed
ourselves to an outcome of COP6 that ensures the environmental
integrity of the Kyoto Protocol and its targets. This is a
promising perspective for The Hague later this year," Wallstrom
said.
"Around the table we shared the view that at Rio+10 in 2002 we
have to move from words to action. We must also address poverty
eradication as the key concern for developing countries.
Protection of the environment and economic development of the
poorer countries can go together." Rio+10 is the name of a
conference on the global environment planned for 2002, ten years
after the landmark United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero.
United States Under Secretary of State Alan Larson said the G8
summit will address the environmental guidelines for export
credit agencies.
"On environment, we think that the export credit agencies of the
world, which finance a larger dollar volume of projects than the
multilateral develop banks, ought to operate under strong
environmental guidelines. The Export-Import Bank of the United
States has operated within these guidelines for several years,
and so we think that others need to as well. If not, there is a
risk that the G8 countries are using taxpayer funds in support of
projects that degrade the environment," Larson said in Washington
Thursday.
This could be a major adverse contribution to the emissions of
greenhouse gases that cause climate change, he warned.
Larson said the United States would like to see "an explicit
commitment on the part of the G8 to achieve the goal of putting
these guidelines into place by this time next year, 2001." These
guidelines should at least include what is already in the
sensible guidelines that have been adopted by multilateral
development banks.
Greenpeace has been staging demonstrations around the world to
draw the attention of the G8 leaders to illegal logging in the
world's dwindling forests. In the past few weeks, Greenpeace has
highlighted what it calls "the failure of the G8’s Forest Action
Programme" with actions in the UK, Germany, Russia, Belgium,
Italy, Denmark and currently Japan, Portugal and Spain.
In Birmingham, England in 1998, the G8 leaders agreed to fight
trade in illegally harvested timber.
Now Greenpeace is calling on this new set of G8 leaders to adopt
green procurement policies, offer new development aid to combat
illegal logging and abolish all subsidies for ancient forest
destruction.
SOURCE: Environment News Service (ENS)
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