G8 Summit

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06 July 2005
G8 Leaders To Focus on Economy, Climate Change, Africa

Bush urging environmentally friendly technology to help development

By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Glasgow, Scotland -- Leaders from the world’s eight leading industrialized countries are gathering in the Scottish golf resort of Gleneagles with African development and climate change topping their agenda.

The Group of Eight (G8) leaders participating in the July 6-8 summit are Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and U.S. President Bush.

All eight leaders will attend a dinner hosted by Queen Elizabeth II July 6 at the Gleneagles resort before beginning their first session of meetings the morning of July 7.

According to press reports, climate change and the Middle East will be the focus of the first day’s discussions, and the G8 leaders will also meet with leaders from India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico.

The United States has been criticized for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, an amendment to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change that calls on signatory countres to commit to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases.However, in July 6 remarks in Copenhagen with the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, President Bush called for a “post-Kyoto era” in addressing climate change. He said the treaty was flawed in that it did not include developing countries and said ratifying the treaty would have “wrecked” the U.S. economy.

Bush said he recognized the reality of global warming and that “an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem.” However, “Kyoto didn’t work for the United States and it, frankly, didn’t work for the world,” Bush said, adding, “I think there's a better way forward.”

National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, briefing the press July 5 aboard Air Force One en route to Denmark, said the Bush administration views climate change as an “interrelated set of problems,” namely pollution, climate change, poverty alleviation, development and access to reliable, affordable, secure energy.

Developing countries should not have to choose between economic development and responsible environmental stewardship, he said, and 2 billion people currently do not have access to the “safe, reliable, affordable sources of energy” that are necessary for economic development.

Through technology, there may be ways to reconcile both needs, and “we think that the G8 provides an opportunity to showcase some of those things.” Specifically, Hadley mentioned nuclear power, hydrogen technology and clean coal technology.

Bush said July 6 that the United States has invested heavily in research and development of new technologies -- technologies “that we are willing to share with the world.”

African development and the need to relieve poverty on the continent will be the focus of the leaders' discussions July 8. Leaders from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania will meet with the G8 in the morning session. Following lunch with the African leaders, the G8 summit will conclude in the afternoon with a press conference by Prime Minister Blair, who is hosting the event.

The Africa agenda of the summit meeting comes amid wide publicity, after the LIVE 8 rock concerts and appeals by celebrities to end poverty in Africa, as well as protests by demonstrators, many of whom are calling for a dramatic increase in world aid to Africa.

“Our primary focus in Africa is going to be to focus efforts on solving people’s problems,” President Bush said.

The president said the United States is willing to give more aid and cancel more debt for developing African nations, provided that their governments “invest in their people; invest in the health of their people, the education of their people; and fight corruption.”

“I don't know how we can look our taxpayers in the eye and say, 'this is a good deal to give money to countries that are corrupt,'” Bush said, a point Hadley also made in his briefing.

“We need to be output-oriented,” Hadley said. “We need to be asking, can we measure progress in these societies for lifting people out of poverty, and enhancing their incomes.”

Countries that are committed to promoting good governance, fighting corruption, investing in areas such as health and education, and opening their economies to private investment and trade “are the kinds of countries that are going to be able to take the aid and turn it into what we all really want, which is rising living standard and reduction of poverty,” according to the national security adviser.

Although the United States is the world’s largest donor of official development assistance, Hadley said traditional aid is only “a small piece” of the resources available to spur economic growth in Africa. These include local and international investment, private charitable giving, remittance payments from African workers living in other countries, and -- most important -- freer trade with the rest of the world.

“Trade is much more significant for these countries, in terms of giving people livelihoods and incomes," Hadley said. The potential impact of trade on development "dwarfs … by an order of magnitude" the impact of traditional aid programs, Hadley said.

Ahead of the summit, the G8 countries endorsed a joint U.S. and British proposal to forgive $40 billion in debt owed to multilateral banks by 18 of the world's poorest countries, 14 of which are in Africa.

On June 30, Bush also announced additional U.S. funding for Africa to funding to help fight malaria, promote education and support women’s empowerment. (See related article.)

For additional information on the summit, see G8 Summit 2005, Gleneagles, Scotland.

For more information on U.S. efforts to assist African nations, see U.S. Aid to Africa.

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