G8

[Gidan]

<b>GLENEAGLES, Scotland (AP) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday hailed the G8's $50 billion package for Africa and other agreements as "a beginning, not the end" of a new era in aid to the world's poorest nations.</b>

Blair spoke at the end of this week's G8 summit in Scotland, a meeting overshadowed by Thursday's London terror attacks but which ended with defiant talk and pledges to address both poverty and climate change.

Terrorism "will not obscure what we came here to achieve. The purpose of terror is not only to kill, it is to put despair into people's hearts," Blair said. (Full story)

"All of this does not change the world tomorrow. It is a beginning, not an end."

The British prime minister made African poverty and climate change the centerpiece of the three-day summit. The G8 countries had already agreed to cancel the debt of 18 of the world's poorest countries, 14 of them in Africa.

On Africa, he said the deal was "not what everyone wanted" but said it represented "real, achievable progress."

"The 50 billion dollar uplift in aid is a signal for a new deal on trade, (as is) the cancellation of debt of poorer nations, universal access to AIDS treatment and a commitment to a new peacekeeping force for Africa," Blair said.

"It isn't the end of poverty in Africa, but it is the hope that it can be ended," Blair said. "It is the definitive expression of our collective will to act in the face of death and disease and conflict that is preventable."

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, speaking immediately after Blair, called the G8 summit's achievements a "great success."

Blair also announced a $3 billion aid package for the Palestinian Authority and that Britain would host a meeting on climate change in November.

G8 officials and leaders worked late into the night Thursday to hammer out a revised declaration on fighting terrorism, to reflect the attacks in London.

The document was described as a progress report on what the countries are doing in the global war on terrorism.

Blair had gone to London for several hours Thursday after the bombings. U.S. President George W. Bush, who along with the other leaders gathered here had expressed strong condemnation for the attacks, was leaving for Washington earlier than scheduled.

Despite the curtailment, leaders reached a tentative agreement on tackling climate change -- although environmentalists criticized the declaration and accused the United States of watering it down.

Blair started the day meeting South African President Thabo Mbeki and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. The leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania were also to join discussions with the G8 leaders.

Friday's talks focused on Blair's ambitious agenda of doubling aid to Africa, wiping out the debt of the world's poorest countries and removing damaging trade subsidies that make it difficult for developing countries to compete globally.

Organizers of the Live-8 concerts and anti-poverty campaigners Bob Geldof and Bono arrived at the Gleneagles country club Friday for talks with French President Jacques Chirac.

The G8 leaders were expected to pledge to double aid to Africa by 2012, but leave out the numerical goal of increasing aid from the current $25 billion to $50 billion.

Blair's other goal of getting all summit countries to commit to raising foreign aid to an amount equivalent to 0.7 percent of each country's economy by 2015 was also expected to be left out of the close of summit declaration.

The United States, which is now giving an amount equal to 0.16 percent of its economy, objected to the setting a numerical target for support.

The declaration on climate change disappointed environmentalists. Three groups -- The Climate Group, WWF International and Friends of the Earth International -- saw it as a failure to take significant action against a serious problem.

"Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe," the G8 leaders' draft declaration said. "We know that increased need and use of energy from fossil fuels and other human activities contribute in large part to increases in greenhouse gases associated with the warming of our earth surface.

While uncertainty remains in our understanding of climate science, we know enough to act now and to put ourselves on a path to slow and, as science justifies, stop and then reverse the growth of greenhouse gases."

Chirac said the agreement was "important, even if it doesn't go as far as I would have wanted it to." But he called the compromise language a "visible, real evolution" in the American position.

France and others had been hoping to include an explicit reference in the declaration to the Kyoto Protocol and how to proceed when the accord expires in 2012. But reference to the accord was minimal.

"Those of us who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol welcome its entry into force and will work to make it a success," it said.

The leaders of the Group of Eight -- the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia -- had vowed on Thursday not to allow the terrorist attacks in London to derail their summit efforts, and aides said the leaders managed to get through the entire agenda of discussions that had been planned for Thursday despite the bombings.

[Gidan]

<b>GLENEAGLES, Scotland (Reuters) -- The Group of Eight powers meeting in Scotland declared on Friday that global warming required urgent action, but set no measurable targets for reducing the greenhouse gases that trigger it.</b>

The leaders recognized that "climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the planet."

Their final declaration, seen by Reuters, acknowledged that human activity contributed in large part to global warming, and said there was a need to reduce greenhouse gases -- mostly the product of the fossil fuels that power much modern industry.

They pledged to "act with resolve and urgency" to tackle the problem.

But they set no yardsticks or clear goals.

And their declaration made only cursory reference to the binding Kyoto accord on cutting greenhouse gases, which was signed by all G8 powers except the United States -- President George W. Bush has branded it as economic suicide.

Sidestepping any further rancor over Kyoto, the G8 agreed a wide-ranging "Action Plan" to promote energy efficiency and the use of cleaner fuels.

France, which has championed Kyoto, made clear on Thursday that it saw the outcome as only just sufficient.

"Even if it does not go as far as we would have liked, it has one essential virtue in my eyes -- that is, to re-establish a dialogue and cooperation between the Kyoto seven and the United States on a subject of the highest importance," French President Jacques Chirac said.

In the event, the G8 declaration also went some way to meeting other demands from Kyoto signatories.

In particular, they had been concerned that the Bush administration continued to be skeptical about the view of most scientists, including American experts, that global warming is largely man-made and is affecting the climate.

The text said that, while uncertainties remained in understanding climate science, enough was known to act now to "put ourselves on a path to slow and, as the science justifies, stop and then reverse the growth of greenhouse gases".

Environmentalists were dismissive of the text's failure to commit the G8 to any measurable reduction in greenhouse gases.

"The agreement lacks a clear acknowledgement of the urgent need for action and fails to state any significant steps G8 leaders will take to tackle climate change", the activist group Greenpeace said in a statement.

It said the Bush administration had been the main block to a stronger outcome.

The eight powers did pledge to launch a wider dialogue on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development, bringing in other major energy consumers. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said these talks would begin in Britain on November 1.

The document said it was in the interests of all to work with large emerging economies -- a reference in particular to China and India, which attended the Gleneagles summit and are expected to produce more pollution as their industries grow.

The G8 powers pledged to promote the transfer of new technology to developing countries and also stated that the United Nations provided the appropriate forum to negotiate a future multilateral regime to address climate change.

[mofish]

Silly foreigners. The environment and relieving poverty? What about armed invasions and corporate interests? Where is the BALANCE!

[brinstar]

sounds pretty good imho

a little flimsy on the environmental side, but otherwise i like it

[Ganzo]

Now the sweedish bank accounts of African Dictators and Warlords, and PA Hamas/Fatah/"Democratic Leaders"; will be $50 billion richer.
Congrats at fixing nothing

[Captain Insano]

Yah fuck Africa.

Give me .16 of the nation's economy and I will get some serious shit fixed.

[Phlegm]

Now the sweedish bank accounts of African Dictators and Warlords, and PA Hamas/Fatah/"Democratic Leaders"; will be $50 billion richer.
Congrats at fixing nothing

so at least they will be "relieving poverty" for some citizens of Africa.

[Harrison]

Cong