G8 climate change pledges don't go far enough, warns Tearfund

|PIC1|The Christian aid agency welcomed the pledge made by G8 leaders yesterday to stop average global temperatures rising by more than 2C and cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, but warned that they “fail to match the level of ambition desperately needed”.

Paul Cook, Tearfund Advocacy Director, criticised G8 leaders for failing to set “an ambitious goal” for 2020 emissions targets. He warned that “billions, not millions” would be needed to finance mitigation, adaptation and technology to help poor countries adequately respond to the impact of climate change.

“What part of the word urgency do G8 leaders not understand?” said Mr Cook. “Adequate finance is the sticking point currently deadlocking negotiations and so far the group has failed to put their money where their mouths are.”

Climate change campaigners say 2009 is a crunch year for climate change. In December government leaders will meet in Copenhagen to reach a follow up deal to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Tearfund wants to see developed countries deliver at least $150 billion of funding a year in addition to Overseas Development Assistance, as well as ‘no strings attached’ new funding to be distributed to poor countries before 2012.

“Anything less will severely weaken relations between rich and poor nations and trigger a breakdown in trust that will block progress towards a strong and fair climate deal,” the aid agency said.

Mr Cook urged the Major Economies Forum (MEF) to announce stronger commitments in its communiqué to be released on Thursday.

Also on the agenda during the talks in L’Aquila, Italy, are the state of the global economy and development in Africa.

A communiqué on African development released on Wednesday also came up for criticism, with Tearfund warning that it did not go far enough to address the needs of 900 million people worldwide living without clean water and the 2.5 billion without adequate sanitation.

“This is simply a staggering disregard for basic human rights and a missed opportunity,” said Mr Cook. “How many of these leaders would have been happy to come here if they were told there would be no toilet facilities or clean water?

He dismissed a plan of action on development announced by the G8 leaders as “vague” and warned that they would need to move away from “half measures” and rhetoric if they were “to remain relevant in the arena of tackling global poverty issues”.

World Vision’s Director of Advocacy in Africa Sue Mbaya said, meanwhile: “It’s taken the G8 only a few hours to condemn this summit to failure on aid for Africa. Even by the unremarkable standards of previous summits this is a low point. For Prime Minister Berlusconi as the G8 chair it shows a major failure of leadership.”