Tuesday, August 16, 2005
2005 Summit
The outcome of the G8 meeting on 6-8 July 2005 is summarised here.
The two main themes of the UK presidency were climate change and Africa.
On climate change, the Gleneagles Plan of Action was agreed.
"23. Those of us who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol will (a) work to strengthen and develop the implementation of the market mechanisms etc,etc"
"33. We look forward to further discussions on how development and energy strategies can be strengthened to build resilience to climate impacts, including at the Millennium Review Summit in September 2005."
However this G8 agreement was overshadowed three weeks later by the Asia-Pacific Energy Initiative.
"The United States has joined five nations in the Asia-Pacific region in an initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the sharing of energy technology. . .This new partnership includes the United States, Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. [The US Deputy Secretary of State] said the six countries combined represent more than half of the world's economy, population and energy use, and also produce half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions."
On Africa, Africa: A Historic Opportunity was agreed.
"10 (e) Acting effectively in the UN and in other fora to combat the role played by 'conflict resources' such as oil, diamonds and timber, and other scarce natural resources, in starting and fuelling conflicts."
"21. An ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Round is the best way to make trade work for Africa and increase African countries' integration into the global economy. The Hong Kong Ministerial in December will be a critical step towards a successful outcome of the DDA in 2006."
But Progress on Doha has been disappointing.
"In the key areas of agriculture, developed countries continue to adopt a rather evasive attitude towards eliminating export subsidies and reducing domestic support, while having a very high level of ambition with respect to market access. Keeping in mind the livelihood security of millions of poor farmers and their inability to subsidise these, developing countries would obviously like to move cautiously on the market access agenda in agriculture."
Update on 22 August, 2005
The NYT rails against slow progress in the Doha 'development' trade talks. "But for poor countries, the process of compromise has been a one-way street for more than half a century. It's time for the rich world to start doing a little compromising."
Update on 11 September, 2005
The G20 are also reported to want progress on Doha.
The two main themes of the UK presidency were climate change and Africa.
On climate change, the Gleneagles Plan of Action was agreed.
"23. Those of us who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol will (a) work to strengthen and develop the implementation of the market mechanisms etc,etc"
"33. We look forward to further discussions on how development and energy strategies can be strengthened to build resilience to climate impacts, including at the Millennium Review Summit in September 2005."
However this G8 agreement was overshadowed three weeks later by the Asia-Pacific Energy Initiative.
"The United States has joined five nations in the Asia-Pacific region in an initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the sharing of energy technology. . .This new partnership includes the United States, Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. [The US Deputy Secretary of State] said the six countries combined represent more than half of the world's economy, population and energy use, and also produce half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions."
On Africa, Africa: A Historic Opportunity was agreed.
"10 (e) Acting effectively in the UN and in other fora to combat the role played by 'conflict resources' such as oil, diamonds and timber, and other scarce natural resources, in starting and fuelling conflicts."
"21. An ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Round is the best way to make trade work for Africa and increase African countries' integration into the global economy. The Hong Kong Ministerial in December will be a critical step towards a successful outcome of the DDA in 2006."
But Progress on Doha has been disappointing.
"In the key areas of agriculture, developed countries continue to adopt a rather evasive attitude towards eliminating export subsidies and reducing domestic support, while having a very high level of ambition with respect to market access. Keeping in mind the livelihood security of millions of poor farmers and their inability to subsidise these, developing countries would obviously like to move cautiously on the market access agenda in agriculture."
Update on 22 August, 2005
The NYT rails against slow progress in the Doha 'development' trade talks. "But for poor countries, the process of compromise has been a one-way street for more than half a century. It's time for the rich world to start doing a little compromising."
Update on 11 September, 2005
The G20 are also reported to want progress on Doha.
# posted by IJ @ 9:26 AM 
