 
G8 fails humanity and the planet; Canada’s Contribution
Embarrassing
KAIROS analysis of the G8’s June 2007
Summit
Contents
At their Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, the Group of Eight failed
to deliver even minimal progress on several important issues, due
in part to Prime Minister Harper’s backing away from previous
Canadian commitments.
Climate Change
Prior to the Summit KAIROS joined others in the Climate Action
Network in urging Harper to back Chancellor Merkel’s goal
of limiting global average temperature increases to as far below
2°C as possible. No such commitment appears in the final communiqué
due to opposition from President George W. Bush, backed by Harper’s
unwillingness to endorse the 2°C target.
The final G8 communiqué contains one face-saving compromise
for Chancellor Merkel. It says that Bush will “consider seriously
the decisions made by the European Union, Canada and Japan which
include at least a halving of global emissions by 2050.” But
2050 is a long time away and cutting emissions by 50% is insufficient
since at least an 80% reduction by industrialized countries is needed
to contain temperature increases below 2°C.
The compromise language implies that Bush can ignore the European
Union’s unilateral commitment to a 20% reduction in its greenhouse
gas emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, and to increase
this to 30% if other developed countries take similar steps. Instead,
Bush can “consider seriously” adopting the weaker Canadian
goal of reducing total GHG emissions by 20% relative to 2006 levels
by 2020. Whereas the Europeans are well on the way to fulfilling
their Kyoto promises, the Harper plan envisions Canadian GHG emissions
in 2020 that would be 8% above Canada’s Kyoto target.
The only consolation is that Bush agreed to work within the UN climate
change process for negotiating post-Kyoto emission reduction targets.
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Corporate Social Responsibility
and Extractive Industries
KAIROS had hoped that Canada would push for new corporate social
responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the extractive sector at the
Summit, as a follow-up to the federal government’s multi-stakeholder
roundtables on CSR in 2006. Unfortunately, the G8 communiqué
does not advance the CSR agenda by one iota – promoting nothing
more than voluntary CSR guidelines without any enforcement mechanisms
or penalties for non-compliance. After almost three months the Harper
government has yet to respond formally to the roundtable recommendations
and the G8 meetings was another missed opportunity. It is critical
that the Canadian government move quickly to adopt the recommendations
contained in the Roundtables Report as a first step toward binding
legislation for extractive industries.
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Official Development
Assistance
In Germany the G8 recycled its Gleneagles promise to double development
assistance to Africa by 2010. Anti-poverty groups have rightly castigated
the G8 as a whole for falling behind on this commitment. On this
score the Harper government deserves particular censure. During
the Summit there were repeated media reports that Canada, along
with Italy, was blocking progress on commitments to fighting poverty
in Africa.
Then it was revealed that the promise made two years ago by the
Martin government to double Canadian aid to Africa to $2.8 billion
by 2008-09 has been scaled back to just $2.1 billion. This reduced
commitment was justified by a downward revision of the amount that
Canada actually gave in the base year, 2003-04. Far from apologizing
for the missing $700 million, Harper declared that Africa is no
longer a priority for Canadian aid despite being the home to 300
million people living in desperate poverty.
While Harper was in Germany signing on to a communiqué that
says aid should be targeted “particularly [to] poverty eradication”,
back in Ottawa Conservative Senators were holding up approval of
a bill already passed by opposition MPs in the House of Commons
that would make fighting poverty the principal goal of Canadian
development assistance.
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HIV and AIDS
Prior to the Summit KAIROS joined its partners in the Global Treatment
Action Group in urging the Prime Minister to champion four ways
of fighting the AIDS pandemic: increasing development assistance,
providing generic anti-retroviral medicines, canceling external
debts and improving public health care services in impoverished
countries.
In addition to falling behind in its commitments on development
assistance, the G8 actually reversed itself on a commitment made
at Gleneagles to deliver life-saving medicines to people infected
with HIV. At Gleneagles the commitment had been to support as near
as possible to universal access to anti-retroviral treatment by
2010 when ten million people will need those life-saving medicines.
The Heiligendamm communiqué only makes a commitment to treatment
for five million people over an unspecified “next few years”.
Furthermore, the Harper government has done nothing to rectify the
flaws in the so-called Jean Chretien Pledge to Africa Act which
has so far failed to deliver even one vial of made-in-Canada generic
medicine to people living with AIDS.
While the Heiligendamm communiqué refers to the Gleneagles
promise of writing off some multilateral debts of countries that
adhere to International Monetary Fund austerity conditions, it fails
to recognize that so far only about 13% of the debts of the 80 countries
with high HIV rates have been cancelled under the G8 Plan.
The G8 communiqué also repeatedly refers to the need to
improve health care services in Africa, completely ignoring the
fact that the conditions attached to debt relief by the IMF regularly
prevent African governments from spending much of the development
assistance they receive intended for hiring nurses and doctors.
An IMF study of 29 African countries found that over the years 1999
to 2005 only $3 out of every $10 in annual aid increases were allowed
to be spent, while the other $7 was set aside as international reserves
or domestic savings due to the IMF’s irrational fear of inflation.
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Conclusion
When even the Financial Times calls the G8 an “increasingly
outmoded talking shop of the complacent rich,” it is time
to recognize the G8’s profound crisis of legitimacy and replace
it with more representative bodies.
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