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http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-09-03.asp
G8 Leaders Conclude with Pledge to Ease Global Food Crisis
TOYAKO, Japan, July 9, 2008 (ENS) - The leaders of the world's eight wealthiest countries, the G8, packed their bags and headed home tonight after three days of discussions that dealt with ways to solve the global food crisis and global warming, among other issues.
Illustration Omitted:
UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Photo courtesy UN)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the G8 statement on climate change, food security and development as "a good start."
"The discussion here provides initial direction for global efforts that must be accelerated in the coming weeks and months," Ban said in a statement issued today at the conclusion of the G8 Summit.
Ban was pleased with the "strong commitment" of the G8 to address the global food crisis in a Global Partnership for Food, facilitated and coordinated by the United Nations.
"The sense of urgency displayed by the G-8 in tackling the most immediate food, nutrition, and agricultural inputs needs of tens of millions of hungry people worldwide is encouraging," the secretary-general said.
The skyrocketing cost of basic foods has touched off riots and demonstrations in at least two dozen countries where people are hungry but cannot afford to buy food or where food is so scarce there is little to buy.
"We are deeply concerned that the steep rise in global food prices coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries is threatening global food security," the G8 leaders said in a joint statement today.
"The negative impacts of this recent trend could push millions more back into poverty, rolling back progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals," said the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Illustration Omitted:
The G8 leaders in an informal moment in
Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan. (Photo courtesy Govt. of Japan)
"We are determined to take all possible measures in a coordinated manner, and since January 2008 have committed, for short, medium and long-term purposes, over US$10 billion to support food aid, nutrition interventions, social protection activities and measures to increase agricultural output in affected countries," the G8 leaders said.
They called for other donors to join them in funding the necessary measures to increase agricultural production and get food to the starving millions around the world, but made no additional financial commitments in their communique today.
The G8 leaders did agree to reverse the overall decline of aid and investment in the agricultural sector, and to achieve significant increases in support of developing country initiatives, including, in Africa, through full and effective implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme, CAADP.
They welcomed the World Bank's recent announcement of a new US$1.2 billion rapid financing facility to address immediate needs, but did not respond to World Bank President Robert Zoellick's plea last week for more donations.
Zoellick said the bank currently has almost $400 million of additional new requests from 31 countries, warning, "These calls for help outstrip our available grant resources."
The G8 leaders expressed support for CAADP's goal of 6.2 percent annual growth in agricultural productivity, and the goal of doubling production of key food staples in African countries in five to10 years in a sustainable manner, with particular emphases on fostering smallholder agriculture and inclusive rural growth.
They pledged to support improvement of infrastructure, including irrigation, transportation, supply chain, storage and distribution systems and quality control; and also to assist in the development of food security early warning systems.
G8 Leaders Conclude with Pledge to Ease Global Food Crisis
TOYAKO, Japan, July 9, 2008 (ENS) - The leaders of the world's eight wealthiest countries, the G8, packed their bags and headed home tonight after three days of discussions that dealt with ways to solve the global food crisis and global warming, among other issues.
Illustration Omitted:
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the G8 statement on climate change, food security and development as "a good start."
"The discussion here provides initial direction for global efforts that must be accelerated in the coming weeks and months," Ban said in a statement issued today at the conclusion of the G8 Summit.
Ban was pleased with the "strong commitment" of the G8 to address the global food crisis in a Global Partnership for Food, facilitated and coordinated by the United Nations.
"The sense of urgency displayed by the G-8 in tackling the most immediate food, nutrition, and agricultural inputs needs of tens of millions of hungry people worldwide is encouraging," the secretary-general said.
The skyrocketing cost of basic foods has touched off riots and demonstrations in at least two dozen countries where people are hungry but cannot afford to buy food or where food is so scarce there is little to buy.
"We are deeply concerned that the steep rise in global food prices coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries is threatening global food security," the G8 leaders said in a joint statement today.
"The negative impacts of this recent trend could push millions more back into poverty, rolling back progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals," said the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Illustration Omitted:
"We are determined to take all possible measures in a coordinated manner, and since January 2008 have committed, for short, medium and long-term purposes, over US$10 billion to support food aid, nutrition interventions, social protection activities and measures to increase agricultural output in affected countries," the G8 leaders said.
They called for other donors to join them in funding the necessary measures to increase agricultural production and get food to the starving millions around the world, but made no additional financial commitments in their communique today.
The G8 leaders did agree to reverse the overall decline of aid and investment in the agricultural sector, and to achieve significant increases in support of developing country initiatives, including, in Africa, through full and effective implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme, CAADP.
They welcomed the World Bank's recent announcement of a new US$1.2 billion rapid financing facility to address immediate needs, but did not respond to World Bank President Robert Zoellick's plea last week for more donations.
Zoellick said the bank currently has almost $400 million of additional new requests from 31 countries, warning, "These calls for help outstrip our available grant resources."
The G8 leaders expressed support for CAADP's goal of 6.2 percent annual growth in agricultural productivity, and the goal of doubling production of key food staples in African countries in five to10 years in a sustainable manner, with particular emphases on fostering smallholder agriculture and inclusive rural growth.
They pledged to support improvement of infrastructure, including irrigation, transportation, supply chain, storage and distribution systems and quality control; and also to assist in the development of food security early warning systems.
The G8 leaders agreed to promote science-based risk analysis "of seed varieties developed through biotechnology."
They pledged to "support country-led development strategies in adapting to the impact of climate change, combating desertification, and promoting conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, while intensifying our efforts to address climate change."
They vowed to "ensure the compatibility of policies for the sustainable production and use of biofuels with food security" and accelerate development and commercialization of "sustainable second-generation biofuels from non-food plant materials and inedible biomass."
Illustration Omitted:
And they promised to accelerate agricultural research and development, and the training of a new generation of developing country scientists and experts focusing on the dissemination of improved, locally adapted and sustainable farming technologies, in particular through partnerships such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or AGRA, the group headed by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In a statement today AGRA said, "if Africa is to see more results than promises, the G8 would do well to pay attention to solutions already being pursued in Africa. Farmers, governments, scientists, the private sector, civil society and donors are pursuing a series of initiatives designed to launch a uniquely African Green Revolution."
The intense focus in Africa today is on programs and policies that ultimately could transform the continent into a bread basket for the world, AGRA said.
"Africans have built a framework and made a political commitment to achieving an African Green Revolution. Supportive national and international policies, and significant reinvestment in agriculture, are central to their success," said the African organization.
In less than two years, AGRA has committed US$330 million in programs that "address challenges across the agricultural value chain."
AGRA says concerted reinvestment of an estimated US$10 billion a year is needed from African and donor countries. "Investment should focus on improving conditions for small-scale farmers, the majority women, who are the heart of African agriculture."
"By seizing on the current crisis to address the long-term causes of food shortages in Africa and participating in partnerships to achieve the above goals, said AGRA, the G8 could help to make today's emergency tomorrow's triumph."
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Rich_nations_pledge_action_on_food_oil_but_deadlock_on_climate_999.html
Rich nations pledge action on food, oil, but deadlock on climate
by Staff Writers
Toyako, Japan (AFP) July 9, 2008
Leaders of the world's top industrial powers ended a summit Wednesday with pledges to act on soaring oil and food prices, but failed to bridge deep differences with poor nations on fighting climate change.
US President George W. Bush hailed his last Group of Eight summit, at which rich nations agreed to at least halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as "very productive".
"I'm pleased to report that we've had significant success," Bush said before he left the resort venue where the annual summit was held in the mountains of northern Japan.
Emerging nations invited to attend a special summit on tackling global warming however declined to back the G8's much-touted carbon emissions goals, saying they amounted to empty rhetoric.
The global economy, under threat from skyrocketing oil and food prices and also being battered by the subprime mortgage crisis that has infected global financial markets, preoccupied the leaders.
"At the heart of the summit were the triple shocks to the world economy: rising oil prices, rising food prices and the credit crunch," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The G8 powers -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- account for two-thirds of the world's gross domestic product.
Their leaders said in a joint statement that while global growth had "moderated," they remained positive on the future.
They called for efforts to bring down oil prices, which have jumped five-fold since 2003, as well as the soaring cost of food which has set off riots in parts of the developing world.
"There's a need to improve transparency on the oil market," Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference.
G8 leaders also called on all countries to end export restrictions on food to allow supplies to be sent to countries that most need them, Fukuda said.
The summit was dominated by discussions on global warming amid growing concern that rising temperatures caused by carbon emissions are threatening entire species of plants and animals.
The rich nations' club on Tuesday agreed on the need for a global emissions cut of at least 50 percent by 2050, a step praised by G8 leaders as progress after years of hesitation by Bush.
"This, against a 1990 baseline, is a clear step forward. But we must go further," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.
But Fukuda said he believed the baseline was current levels and developing countries slammed the statement as too weak.
Leaders including Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tussled with rich nations at a special expanded summit on Wednesday.
The deadlock between rich and developing nations has held up talks on reaching a new climate treaty by the end of 2009 in Copenhagen -- a goal set in December at a UN-backed conference in Bali.
"Climate change is one of the great global challenges of our time," the 16 leaders said in a statement. "Our nations will continue to work constructively together to promote the success of the Copenhagen climate change conference."
But their statement said only that rich countries would implement their own goals for cutting greenhouse emissions while developing major economies would also take action, without proposing any numbers.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso defended the summit outcome.
"It is quite wrong to see this in terms of a confrontation between developed and developing countries," he said. "Of course we accept the lion's share of responsibility but this is a global challenge which requires a global response."
But the so-called Group of Five -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa -- has demanded that rich nations take the lead, saying they were historically responsible for climate change.
"Until there's a change in the decision of the United States, South Africa finds it very difficult for the G5 to move forward," South African Environment Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk told reporters.
Kim Carstensen, head of the WWF environmental group's Global Climate Initiative, accused rich nations of trying to stall action by putting the onus on developing countries.
"Some rich nations get lost in tactics and seem to forget that the survival of people and nature crucially depends on their leadership," he said.
The United States is the only major industrial country to reject the Kyoto Protocol, the current climate change treaty, with Bush arguing that it is unfair as it makes no demands of fast-growing emerging economies.
Leaders also made time to address the crisis in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe won a violence-marred election after his chief rival dropped out.
The summit "made it clear we would impose new sanctions against an illegitimate regime that has blood on its hands," Brown said, rallying world support for UN sanctions on Harare.
Next year's G8 summit will be held on the Italian island of Sardinia where emerging nations will again be invited to join the dialogue.
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