G8 Confers on Climate and Biodiversity

G8 Confers on Climate and Biodiversity



March 2007 - The environment 
ministers of the eight leading industrialized countries, the 
G8, have wound up two days of consultation focused on ways to 
preserve biological diversity and combat climate change. 
At the invitation of German Environment Minister Sigmar 
Gabriel, who chairs the G8 group this year, the environment 
ministers of the five major newly industrializing countries - 
China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa – took part for 
the first time in this annual ministerial meeting. 
The 13 ministers agreed on a "Potsdam Initiative" on 
biodiversity that would calculate the economic costs from 
dwindling species, said Gabriel. 
The study would be like the Stern Review on climate change, 
Gabriel told a news conference tonight, referring to the 
report issued by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern last 
October that estimated the economic costs of global warming. 
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel is hosting this 
year's meeting of the G8 environment ministers. 
Minister Gabriel said, "The Potsdam meeting offers a great 
opportunity to make real progress for biodiversity 
conservation and climate change mitigation. This group of 
participants brings together the generators of some two-thirds 
of global greenhouse gas emissions and the users of about 
three-quarters of the biological capacity of the Earth." 
Improving understanding and trust between industrial nations 
and emerging economies is one of the goals of the meeting of 
G8 environment ministers. 
Gabriel said, "No major decisions can be expected." The 
Potsdam meeting is designed to prepare the ground for 
decisions that will be taken at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm 
and at the Climate Change Conference to be held in December in 
Bali. 
2007 is a decisive year for international climate protection 
as the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol is due to end in 
2012. The ministers will discuss ways to launch comprehensive 
negotiations at the UN climate summit due to take place at the 
end of this year in Indonesia. 
Breaking through a low-key security barrier, Greenpeace 
activists aboard the sailboat Beluga II and eight Zodiac 
inflatables sailed up the Havel river beside the Cecilienhof 
chateau where the ministers were meeting and unfurled banners 
demanding urgent action against global warming. 
Greenpeace activists urge G8 climate action today at Potsdam. 

Joerg Feddern of Greenpeace Germany approached the chateau 
entrance where, under police escort, he sought to hand a 
petition to Gabriel. 
"The prominent industrial nations are miles away from the 
obligatory Kyoto goals," said Feddern. "If something does not 
happen fast, we are steering directly into climatic disaster." 

During the G8 meeting in Heiligendamm, German Chancellor 
Angela Merkel aims to get the G8 to adopt an ambitious climate 
protection agreement. This is seen as a precondition for 
further international negotiations on a post-2012 climate 
regime. 
Minister Gabriel said, "The international climate negotiations 
urgently need fresh political impetus to cope with this task – 
the task of the century. We engaged in frank debate in Potsdam 
on the obstacles which have impeded progress up to now and the 
avenues by which to remove them." 
In 2002, the European Union has agreed to stem the loss of 
biodiversity by 2010. Three years before the set date, the 
international community remains far from that goal. 
"If we want still to achieve the target we set ourselves, we 
will need to step up our efforts considerably," Gabriel said. 
"The G8 states have the greatest economic capacity and are the 
largest consumers of biological resources. They thus bear a 
special responsibility to safeguard our natural life-support 
systems by taking resolute action now." 
In May 2008 Germany will host the next world summit on 
biodiversity. A priority goal is to generate much greater 
public awareness worldwide about the consequences of species 
loss. 
The Environment Ministers Meeting is expected to agree upon 
joint initiatives in a range of fields – conservation and 
sustainable use of biological diversity, science, patterns of 
consumption and production, and financing. 
Germany holds the G8 presidency this year along with the 
presidency of the European Union. The outcomes of the 
Environment Ministers Meeting will feed into preparations for 
the G8 summit of heads of state and government due to take 
place from June 6 to 8 in Heiligendamm, Germany. 
British Environment Minister David Miliband 
The United Kingdom and South Africa today agreed to jointly 
tackle key international sustainable development issues, 
including climate change. 
UK Environment Secretary David Miliband and South African 
Environment Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism 
Marthinus Van Schalkwyk signed a joint statement establishing 
the UK-South Africa High-Level Dialogue on Sustainable 
Development, including a Working Group on Climate Change. 
The signing, which took place in Potsdam on the margins of the 
G8 Environment Ministers meeting, will lead to cooperation on 
a range of sustainable development issues, including climate 
change, environmental enforcement and mainstreaming 
sustainable development. 
"None of us can solve the challenge of sustainable development 
alone," said Miliband. "We are all part of the problem and so 
we all need to be part of the solution. In particular, we need 
a shift towards a greener, lower carbon global economy." 
The agreement aims to provide a framework for 
cross-governmental collaboration on both sides and for 
contacts between stakeholders in each country. 
The South Africa pact completes the series of five 
partnerships the UK has built with emerging economies China, 
India, Brazil and Mexico to deliver international sustainable 
development commitments. 
Initial collaboration includes a Foreign and Commonwealth 
Office funded water governance project, to be implemented by 
the England and Wales Environment Agency. 
The project will improve access to water for the poor and 
disadvantaged to water resources, and represents a UK 
government commitment of over £200,000. 
South African Environment Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk 

Minister Van Schalkwyk said, "South Africa and the UK will use 
this joint working program as a platform for practical 
cooperation in order to advance our sustainable development 
and climate change policies and actions. The challenges are 
immense and this partnership will assist us to find and 
implement solutions." 
"We are determined to use this platform to address sustainable 
development in all three of its dimensions: ecological, 
economic and social," Van Schalkwyk said. 
The Working Group on Climate Change has already agreed to 
undertake joint research work on possible forms of long term 
global action on climate change. 
The key themes in the UK-South Africa Sustainable Development 
Dialogue are:
  Climate Change and Energy for Sustainable Development 
  Sustainable Consumption and Production 
  Environmental enforcement 
  Mainstreaming sustainable development 
Under the mainstreaming sustainable development theme, both 
governments may look at collaboration on natural resource 
protection and sustainable management, sustainable communities 
and engaging the private sector and financial institutions. 
The G8 states are Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, 
Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia. For the first 
time in Potsdam, the world's major emerging economies, Brazil, 
Mexico, China, India and South Africa are at the negotiating 
table. 





 

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