| G8 Summit Outcomes - Climate Change | 26 July 05 |
 At the G8 Summit held July 6-8, 2005, in Gleneagles, Scotland, leaders of the Group of 8 countries issued a joint communiqué and a "plan of action" on Climate Change, Clean Energy, and Sustainable Development.In the communiqué, the leaders declared that "climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe and that human activities contribute in large part to increases in greenhouse gases associated with the warming of the Earth's surface." The leaders agreed to launch, and invited other countries to join, a Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development to "address the strategic challenge of transforming our energy systems to create a more secure and sustainable future." The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its ultimate objective of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at levels that avoid dangerous human interference with the climate system. They agreed to "move forward... the global discussion on long-term co-operative action to address climate change" at the UN Climate Change Conference later this year in Montreal, Canada. One of the biggest disappointments of the Summit (although not unexpected) was the fact that little in the way of concrete action on climate change was agreed to by the G8 leaders; the goals in the communiqué are vaguely stated, and there is nothing approaching a road map for achieving them. View the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change Summary of the G8 Summit View the G8 Leaders joint communiqué (PDF) View the UNFCC July 8, 2005 press release (PDF) View the July 9, 2005 New York Times Editorial Sources: Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, UNFCC, New York Times |
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