G8 Leaders Pledge to Slow Global Warming, Combat Poverty
NAGO CITY, Okinawa, Japan, July 24, 2000 (ENS) - The Group of
Eight (G8) major powers' communique, issued at the end of their
July 21-23 summit in Okinawa, sets a goal of reducing the share
of the world's population living in extreme poverty to half the
level of 1990 by the year 2015, reflecting the emphasis given to
development at this year's gathering.
The leaders welcomed the conclusion of the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety, and encouraged the parties concerned to work for its
early entry into force.
Looking towards the international conference planned to advance
Agenda 21, the plan for sustainable development and environmental
conservation agreed to at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro in 1992, the leaders pledged prepare a
"future-oriented agenda for Rio+ 10 in 2002."
They promised concerted action to slow global warming through the
United Nations climate change treaty and its newest addition, the
1997 Kyoto Protocol limiting the emission of six greenhouse gases
by these industrialized nations among others.
"We are strongly committed," the G8 communique said, "to close
co-operation among ourselves and with developing countries to
resolve as soon as possible all major outstanding issues, with a
view to early entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. To that
end, we are determined to achieve a successful outcome at the
Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on
Climate Change (COP6), in order to achieve the goals of the Kyoto
Protocol through undertaking strong domestic actions and
supplemental flexibility mechanisms." COP6 is slated for November
in The Hague, Netherlands.
The G8 leaders put particular emphasis on renewable energy as a
antidote to global warming. They created a renewable energy Task
Force to prepare concrete recommendations for consideration at
next year's G8 summit on "sound ways to better encourage the use
of renewables in developing countries."
The highly contentious issue of forest management they attached
particular importance to projects that help indigenous and local
communities practice sustainable forest management. "We will also
examine how best we can combat illegal logging, including export
and procurement practices," the leaders pledged.
Export credit policies may have very significant environmental
impacts, the leaders acknowleged. We welcome the adoption of the
OECD work plan to be completed by 2001. We reaffirm our
commitment to develop common environmental guidelines, drawing on
relevant multilateral development bank experience, for export
credit agencies by the 2001 G8 Summit.
The G8 communique recognized that "strengthening international
maritime safety is vital for the protection of the ocean
environment." The leaders pledged to jointly co-operate with the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to improve maritime
safety. "We endorse efforts by the IMO to strengthen safety
standards, in particular for ships carrying dangerous or
polluting cargo, and to verify implementation and enforcement of
the application of international standards by flag States. We
also endorse efforts by coastal states to enhance safety of
navigation and protection of their marine environment through the
use, where appropriate, of IMO-adopted routing and reporting
measures."
The leaders welcomed the IMO efforts to pursue practical reform
of current international regimes on maritime pollution, in
particular the 1992 Convention on Civil Liability for Oil
Pollution Damage and the 1992 International Oil Pollution
Compensation (IOPC) Convention with respect to better
compensation for damages caused by oil spills.
The leaders renewed the commitment we made at the 1996 Moscow
Summit to safety first in the use of nuclear power and
achievement of high safety standards world wide. "We welcome the
successful outcome of the 2000 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Review Conference. We are determined to implement the conclusions
reached at this conference, including the early entry into force
of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the immediate
commencement and the conclusion within five years of negotiations
for the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty."
"We look forward to the early entry into force and full
implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) II
and to the conclusion of START III as soon as possible, while
preserving and strengthening the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)
Treaty as a cornerstone of strategic stability and as a basis for
further reductions of strategic offensive weapons, in accordance
with its provisions. We welcome the ratification of the CTBT and
START II by Russi," the leaders said.
The transparent, safe, secure, environmentally sound and
irreversible disposition and management of weapon-grade plutonium
no longer required for defence purposes remains vital. The
agreement on plutonium disposition reached between the United
States and Russia, reinforced by their statement of intention
concerning non-separation of additional weapon-grade plutonium,
marks a critical milestone, they said.
"Our goal for the next Summit is to develop an international
financing plan for plutonium management and disposition based on
a detailed project plan, and a multilateral framework to
co-ordinate this co-operation. We will expand our co-operation to
other interested countries in order to gain the widest possible
international support, and will explore the potential for both
public and private funding."
The communique also calls for a new round of trade negotiations,
within the World Trade Organization, "with an ambitious, balanced
and inclusive agenda." And it urges "trade-related capacity
building" assistance to developing countries so they can more
effectively participate in the global trading system.
The communique also sets up a Digital Opportunities Task Force
(DOT Force) that will report at the next G-8 Summit in Genoa,
Italy, in 2001 on ways to take global action to "bridge the
international information and knowledge divide."
The next G8 summit will take place in Genoa next year. "To
enhance communications in the meantime," they said, "we have
agreed to establish an e-mail network among ourselves."
SOURCE: Environment News Service (ENS)
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