A new draft communique on climate change for next month’s Group of Eight summit no longer cites plans to fund research and puts into question top scientists’ warnings that global warming is already under way.
The text, titled "Gleneagles Plan of Action" and dated June 14, has been watered down from a previous draft which itself had no specific targets or timetables for action.
Seen by Reuters, the latest draft also explicitly endorses the use of “zero-carbon” nuclear power — another development that will dismay many environmentalists three weeks before the summit of the world’s eight richest nations at Gleneagles in Scotland.
“The text is getting weaker and weaker. There are no targets, no timetables, no standards — and even the money is gone,” a source close to the negotiations told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
'Serious problem for Blair'
“You are looking at a very, very serious problem for (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair,” the source added.
Blair has pledged to put the fight against climate change at the heart of Britain’s year-long presidency of the G8. He visited three G8 leaders in two days this week to drum up support for his priorities.
The leaders of the G8 and major developing nations South Africa, Brazil, India, Mexico and China will meet at the heavily guarded Gleneagles countryside hotel, 40 miles northwest of the Scottish capital Edinburgh, from July 6-8.
But the United States, questioning the science, refuses to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol that finally came into force in February and which requires cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide.
'Square bracket' treatment
The new draft starkly illustrates the weakening process that has gone on in just six weeks.
An introductory paragraph has moved the statement “our world is warming” into square brackets, suggesting it might not make the cut, and has given the same treatment to a statement from the world’s top scientists that climate change is already under way and demands urgent action.
All references in a draft dated May 3 to unspecified dollar funds for research and development into new, clean technology and fuels have been excised from the latest version.
References in the May 3 draft to “setting ambitious targets and timetables” for cutting carbon emissions from buildings has completely disappeared from the June 14 text.
Even a suggestion that the developed world has a duty of leadership in combating global warming is given the square bracket brush off.
From section to single reference
A section on managing the impacts of climate change, which previously talked about global warming happening and bringing with it more floods, droughts, crop failures and rising sea levels, now contains just one reference to the global crisis.
And even that is in square brackets, indicating that there is deep disagreement over its inclusion.
Scientists have warned that the planet could warm by at least two degrees centigrade this century, bringing with it more gales and floods and rising sea levels, threatening coastal communities and disrupting food supplies.
Most also agree that the change is already happening, is due in part to human activities like burning coal and oil, and will continue for some time whatever is done now.
But U.S. President Bush and his scientific advisers question the scope and scale of the problem and do not agree that mandatory curbs are needed.
