The Columbia University World Leaders Forum, September 26, 2008, Became The Podium For Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark To Make Known A  Roadmap To The December 2009 Climate Change Meeting in Copenhagen. The Prime Minister Is Keenly Interested That The Copenhagen Event Becomes The Turnaround Point From Our Present Descent Towards Global Environmental Disaster, and He Negotiated This Week A Roadmap With The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and The Two Candidates For The US Presidency.  We Wished Him All The Luck He Needs; Nevertheless We Expressed Some Skepticism.

The Columbia Forum brings to campus, during all months of the academic year, leaders involved with all sorts of ongoing problems, and at the time of the September High Level meetings of the UN General Assembly, it picks up special speed, and manages to pick up speakers that may have fallen in between the cracks when organizations like the Asia Society and the Americas Society, or the Foreign Policy Association, or the Council on Foreign Affairs, set up their schedules. This time it was really not the case. Prime Minister Rasmussen came to Columbia University because he has high esteem for the work done at the Earth Institute that is the home for a large number of scientists that were involved in the readying of the IPCC reports. Having said that, we must also note that rather then having the people from The Earth Institute involved in the Forum, the University chose to go all out with Columbia University President, Lee C. Bollinger, and University Professor of Economics and Law, Jagdish Bhagwati, a specialist on globalization and development, being the official hosts.

The above august Columbia University reception caused Mr. Rasmussen to start by saying: “I congratulate you on your work. I am impressed by the contribution of The Earth Institute to both the development agenda and the Millennium Development Goal. Issues I had the opportunity to discuss yesterday with other world leaders. Today, I will be speaking about another major topic for The Earth Institute and for many leaders including myself: CLIMATE CHANGE. I will focus on three key elements: THE CHALLENGE, THE VISION, and THE DEAL.”

 The introduction said to us clearly - the Prime Minister does not want to see the reality of climate change being submerged under tons of other global problems. The task of his leadership towards a Copenhagen 2009 agreement is to lead to an agreed timetable for the decrease of CO2 emissions from human made causes - it is this, rather then the maze of other linked problems, that he intends to tackle. He laid bare the problem in his first two segments - but his aim is the third segment - THE DEAL.

We intend to post his whole presentation - but for this fast posting we want to go directly to the DEAL, point out questions that came up in follow up discussions, and the full information that was then provided to the very few members of the media present at a follow up press conference.

***

The Prime Minister wants to see in the December 2009 declaration a deal based on four key elements:

FIRSTLY: A Long Term Vision for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 1990 baseline by 2050.                    This in order to set out targets for businesses in planning their investments.

SECONDLY: An Ambitious Medium Term Goal for the industrialized countries modeled after the European commitment to 30% reduction by 2020. “A tall order, I know, but it meets the challenge and creates opportunities.”

But that is not enough. The Major Emerging Economies will also have to join this endeavour by taking actions. They must stabilise, and subsequently reduce, their emissions. This obviously taking in consideration the different levels of development of the individual countries. IN THIS PRESERVATION OF FORESTS WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE.

Without clear 10 to 15-year reduction commitments from the industrialized countries it will not be possible to develop cost effective measures.

THIRDLY: The Technology aspect requires the development and dissemination of low carbon technologies and INNOVATION within a global collaborative effort that promotes programs and policies that sustain economic development while ensuring decreased emissions. We must encourage investment and financing of low-carbon technologies.

FOURTHLY: Dealing with the special needs of the most vulnerable developing countries that contributed least to global warming and suffer the hardest consequences, they must be given a safety net which includes financial support for their efforts including adaptation.

The Prime Minister wants to see cost-effective, market-based instruments - efficiency standards and national, regional, and global carbon markets. He looked further at places that such moves were started already - the EU, China,  in many countries in Asia, other emerging economies.

“I believe the Chinese business sector and government have understood the prospects for low carbon technology. They can see a double benefit. Firstly their economy and, secondly, their participation in the global economy. They are already out there seeking to be part of the next generation of smart, low-carbon technologies” - he said.

Mr. Rasmussen did not mince words: “Following the last oil crisis Toyota started to build smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. General Motors did not. Today Toyota is the most sold car in America.”

“In China, cars are produced according to strict fuel efficiency standards. At the same time, US manufacturers are struggling with old fashioned fuel intensive models” - he said. “DO I NEED TO SAY MORE?”

From here Mr. Rasmussen pointed out that much did actually happen in many US individual States that have also established regional carbon markets and energy efficiency standards - so - he wants to see America lead again by example, by entrepreneurship - politically as well as economically.

“I know,” he said, “that many people fear competition from China, especially in energy intensive sectors. And Yes, no deal can address climate change without both China and the United States being part of it. But do not deceive yourself: with emissions at 24 tons per capita the USA has a long way to go and cannot afford to wait for others. There are huge gains to be won by moving rapidly and with determination.”

The choices that will be made in 2009 are not short of shaping actually the future of planet earth for the next century - but Mr. Rasmussen does not think that his goals are unattainable - they are not impossible and they are not unaffordable - they are actually absolutely vital for our survival - he said - and he offered also that they are vital for our economic recovery and growth.

“We could continue to wring our hands, watching helplessly as the oil price rises and falls. Watch weather systems spreading havoc. Continue to transfer huge amounts of wealth to autocratic regimes and rely on unstable supplies of oil and gas. Watch our planet grow more unlivable every day. But that is not an option. We are not going to do that.”

***

Professor Bhagawati, in his remarks mentioned, in reference to the present calamity of the US financial sector, also with application to the issues here at hand, that we were once used to the image of a ship captain standing in a position of salute when his ship was going down, this after putting his passengers into the lifeboats. Now we see the captains leaving in the lifeboats and leaving the passengers behind to go down instead.

He also suggested that from Kyoto I we will probably not go to Kyoto II, but rather to Copenhagen I. He wants to have in Poznan, Poland, in December 2008, already the agreement to go to 50% reduction of emissions, and during 2009 the negotiations for the intermediary steps with the consideration of different responsibilities for different stages of development, taken in full account.

***

We brought up the question about the timetable from now to December 2009, with the intermediary stop at Poznan in December 2008.

We explained that the US elections in November 2008 will have produced a new President-elect, but no practical change in the US representation -  what-so-ever - at the Poznan meeting. Simply - the US has only one President at one time. This will make it impossible to deal with the US in order to come up with the Poznan  decision, that is needed in order to reach an agreement that Mr.Rasmussen expects at the Copenhagen meeting in 2009.

Mr. Rasmussen answered that he is already in contact with both US Presidential campaigns, and both said that they will be ready with their plans when they take over on January 20, 2009. But this is also no solution - this because of the fact that a US negotiator will have to be approved by Congress - and it is hardly possible of having such an approval before March to the earliest. Really, as cabinet positions will have to be approved first - let me say that this will not happen before April.

With Poznan having become a dud, negotiations April - November 2009, can hardly be expected at turning Copenhagen of being more then a Poznan II, rather then a Kyoto II or Copenhagen I.

***

The Prime Minister is optimistic nevertheless and expects the EU to push for renewable energy and energy savings, and lead by example. He also puts his hope for Europe’s energy in the construction of pipelines from Central Asia that bypass Russia.

Furthermore, as it is true that climate change is with us for a long time - and it only got worse in the last two century because of the man-caused emissions, nevertheless, it is the confluence of that reason, with the present political reason, the fact that huge amounts of money are transferred to unstable regimes in payment for the energy, is strengthening our resolve to take action now. We must now brake our addiction to oil.

The Prime Minister also told us of a “Troica meeting” with the UN Secretary-General: Indonesia, Poland, Denmark - or the organizers of the Bali (2007), Poznan (2008) , and Copenhagen (2009) meetings, which just happened, a day earlier, at this reunion at the UN.

So, there was already a promise of 50% by 2050 / as per 1990, that was put on the table in Bali, and then backed by the G8 meeting in Japan.These answers to questions from the floor got then further amplified in the meeting with the four members of the Press that participated at the follow up session. And this is what I call now the Roadmap:

The year 2009 will involve Heads of State.

(a) In February - March 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will hold a Heads-of-State Meeting at the UN in order to start the process rolling.

(b) In July 2009, probably in Rome, there will be a meeting of the G8 ++ - that is the major evolving countries - probably 5 of them if not more. This to reach an agreement that can then be brought to all Heads-of-State in a September Session of the UN.

(c) thus an energy/climate change UN High-Level September meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City.

(d) The December 2009 Copenhagen meeting.

Further, we wanted to know what the Prime Minister thinks about a US that will be spending now $1.5 trillion on the Wall Street Bailout - so where will the money come for doing the right things needed in regard to climate change? But the fighting optimist believes that really this is not a question of money, but political will.

Again, I felt compelled to wish good luck and to mention that we are all with him and hope he can pull it through.

Last comment for this first report is that I watched in amazement how the Prime Minister was accosted at the Columbia Forum reception by an Iranian young lady student, who for perhaps 15 minutes was trying him out on those famous cartoons, and how he tried to explain to her the workings of a democracy and the fact that freedom of speech, the press, religion, mean that one religion cannot be imposed on others, and that the government has no right to intervene in a  democracy, even though this student seemed not to want to accept this reality. Columbia University must really have succeeded in bringing on board all sorts of students - and we wish the school luck also, in the attempt to forge well behaved citizens even with hard to reach individuals that surely must come from the leading families of political strata of some of the most repulsive regimes. Finally, another student, waiting in line to talk to the Prime Minister, felt compelled to say - “let’s go back to energy questions.”  A different student, without offering a question,  thanked the Prime Minister for his strong stands.

——–

IOM Press Briefing Notes
Friday 5 September 2008

INDONESIA – Religious Teachers Carry Ramadan Message of Community Policing to Aceh - IOM is working with the Ar-Raniry State Islamic Institute and the Aceh Provincial Police (Polda NAD) through the Holy month of Ramadhan to promote community policing in the Indonesia’s northernmost province through the use of Islamic cultural values unique to the area.

The 15-day Safari Kemitraan Ramadhan (Ramadhan Partnership Road show), which kicks off today, is funded by the European Commission and the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and aims to inform villagers about the value of community policing using religious messages.

IOM is providing logistical support, transport and printed materials for the team of religious teachers from the Institute and police officers implementing the scheme.

“Communities in Aceh will benefit from all the positive values embodied in community policing. The roadshow will help to endorse the program and will be an effective tool to build partnerships with Acehnese across the province,” says Dr. Abdul Rani, Msi, a professor of Ar-Raniry.

Located at the northernmost tip of the island of Sumatra, Aceh is also known colloquially as Mecca’s Veranda. For hundreds of years it served as the final port of call for pilgrims making the long sea voyage from Indonesia, the most populous Moslem nation on earth, to Mecca. It is the most devout area in Indonesia, and proud of its Islamic heritage.

Aceh Senior Police Commissioner Setyanto says he supports the use of a culturally sensitive approach to informing a public that is deeply suspicious of the police. Aceh was the scene of a violent, decades-long separatist conflict that drew to a close in 2005, with the signing of a peace agreement between rebels and the central government.

{As it happens, Aceh is also home of large oil fields with international oil companies having had involvement here. Aceh once was sponsored from the outside in its attempt of becoming independent from Indonesia - thus the announcement and the backing are quite interesting.}

IOM is in the midst of a two year programme to training more than 7,200 of the roughly 9,200 police officers in Aceh in community policing and human rights. The trainings aim to reduce conflict and underpin a return to peace and security in the province.

For further information, please contact Jihan Labetubun at IOM Jakarta. Tel. +62 8111907028. Email:  jlabetubun at iom.int

Muslim Sportswomen Gain Standing in Beijing.
Thursday 07 August 2008

by: Aline Bannayan, Women’s eNews
 http://www.truthout.org/article/muslim-s…

The Beijing Olympics starting Friday will showcase the varying degrees to which Muslim countries are warming up to women’s sports. The United Arab Emirates and Oman are sending women for the first time.

Amman, Jordan - Even before the Beijing Summer Olympics begin on Friday, Habiba Hinai is tasting victory.

For the first time, her country is sending a female Olympian to the games. Buthaina Yaqoubi, 16, will compete in the 100-meter dash and either the long jump or the triple jump.

Hinai, one of three women to represent Oman by bearing the Olympic torch during the relay earlier this year, is vice-chair of Oman’s Volleyball Association, the highest position for any woman in the country’s sports scene.

For 18 years she has advocated for the advancement of women’s athletics in her country, seeing it expand from an activity only available in schools in 1993 to the formation of national women’s volleyball, tennis and table tennis teams in 2004.

Now that her country is sending female competitors to the games, Hinai says she can start looking forward to the day when more Muslim women join the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Asian Committee. “That’s the only way to develop sports in the Muslim world.”

The 135-member International Olympic Committee, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, has 15 female members. Two are former Olympians from Arab Muslim countries: Morocco’s 1984 track-and-field 400-meter star Nawal El Moutawakel, the first Arab woman to earn a gold medal, and Egyptian swimmer Rania Elwani, who competed from 1992 through 2000.

Nine men from Arab and Muslim countries also serve on the committee, which organizes the games and represents its 205 national members.

Warming Rates Vary

Muslim countries are warming up to women’s Olympics by varying degrees.

North African nations dominate in Muslim women’s representation. Among them, Tunisia is a particular standout, with women competing in track and field, canoeing, fencing, judo, table tennis, tennis, tae kwon do and wrestling.

The 11 women in Morocco’s 38-member delegation include 30-year-old Olympic 800-meter track champion Hasna Ben Hassi. The country’s many promising young competitors include 24-year-old Meriem Alaoui Selsouli, a potential gold medalist in the women’s 5,000-meter event, who faces fierce Ethiopian competition. The country is also sending Khadija Abbouda, the Olympics’ first Moroccan female archer.

Algeria’s female volleyball players, All Africa Games champions, will compete in that sport for the first time. “It’s extraordinary. We can meet the world’s best teams. And we’re setting an example for women’s sport in Algeria,” said team captain Marimal Madani. Algerian women will also compete in judo and athletics, where Nahida Touhami will compete in the 1500-meter event.

Jordan’s seven-member delegation includes four women. Among them Nadine Dawani, a tae kwon do competitor, and Zeina Sha’ban, a table tennis champion, have the honor of carrying their nation’s flag in the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.

First Women From Oman and UAE

Among the socially conservative Gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates joins Oman in sending its first women to the games. Sheikha Maitha Mohammad Rashed Al-Maktoum, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad, will compete in tae kwon do. Her cousin and another member of the ruling family, Sheikha Latifa Bint Ahmad Al-Maktoum, will take part in equestrian show jumping.

Muslim Women in Olympic History

1964: Iran sent its first female athlete to Olympics.

1984: Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel became the first Arab woman to win a gold medal when she came in first in the women’s 400 meters at the Los Angeles Games. She is now minister of sports.

1992: Hassiba Boulmerka of Algeria won a gold medal in 1,500-meter race. She often trained in Europe after being castigated in her own country for competing in a vest and shorts. That same year Susi Susanti became the first Olympic athlete to win a gold medal in badminton for Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

2000: Jordan’s Princess Haya, the sister of King Abdullah, became the first female Arab flag-bearer at an Olympic Games, the first and only Arab woman to compete in equestrian events and the first member of an Arab royal family to compete in the Olympics. In 2006, she became the first Arab woman to lead an international sports federation when she was elected president of the International Equestrian Federation.

2004: Women from Iran won medals in pistol shooting. That year Afghanistan-which had ended Taliban rule only three years earlier-sent two female athletes to compete; one in track and field and one in judo. Bahrain sent Ruqaya Al-Ghasra as their first-ever female competitor.

Iran, Pakistan and Bahrain, which usually have predominantly male delegations, are sending a limited number of women.

Iran’s 53 athletes include three women, who will compete in rowing, archery and tae kwon do.

Two women are among Pakistan’s 21 athletes. They are 22-year-old Sadaf Siddiqui running the 100-meter dash and 18-year-old swimmer Kiran Khan. Pakistan first sent female athletes to the games in 1996.

Bahrain is also sending two women, including Ruqaya Al-Ghasra, 24, who won the 200-meter event at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and the 100-meter dash at the 11th Pan-Arab Games in 2007. She has qualified for both the women’s 100-meter and 200-meter races in Beijing. Her countrywoman, Maryam Yusuf Jamal, will compete in the 800-meter.

Iraq has one female sprinter, Dana Hussein, 21, among its four qualifiers.

Somalia’s Samiyo Yusuf will run in the 400-meter and 800-meter events as the only female athlete representing the war-torn nation.

Brunei and Saudi Arabia will not be sending any women. Both countries bar women’s sports for “cultural and religious reasons” and do not allow women to participate in the Olympics.

Qatar and Kuwait will also not be sending any women to Beijing. Both countries allow women’s sports, but are opting to send male athletes with what they consider better competitive chances.

Post-Barcelona Push

Women’s participation in the Olympics has been a particularly sensitive subject since 1992.

That year, 35 countries - half of them Muslim - sent no female athletes to the Barcelona Games.

To lower those numbers two French advocates, Annie Sugier and Linda Weil-Curiel, founded a group called Atlanta Plus to work on requiring countries to include women in their Olympic delegations.

Weil-Curiel, a lawyer, says all-male delegations contravene the Olympic charter’s prohibition against all forms of discrimination. She has been lobbying the International Olympic Committee for years to impose sanctions on nations that bar women from competing.

Based in Paris, her organization now calls itself Atlanta-Sydney-Athens Plus and can happily point to the shrinking supply of all-male delegations.

Thirty-five all-male Olympic teams competed in Barcelona in 1992 compared to 26 in Atlanta in 1996, 10 in Sydney in 2000 and five in Athens 2004. There are at least four all-male delegations sent to Beijing, but a tally is not yet available.

Women came closer to parity during 2004 when they competed in 135 events and represented 44 percent of all participants.

Sports officials in Arab countries contend that women’s limited participation is not restricted to their countries and point to the limited number of women in the International Olympic Committee’s decision-making bodies.

In March 2008, during the fourth International Olympic Committee conference on women and sports, held in Jordan, 600 participants endorsed the Dead Sea Plan of Action. It calls for gender equality in national teams, their leadership and technicians, and also encourages female sports reporters to actively cover the events. Attendees included the world’s top sporting officials, including International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, many Olympic medalists and King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan.

Women were barred from competing in the first modern games in 1896 but four years later they were permitted to participate in the “ladylike” sports of tennis, golf and croquet.

In Beijing, female athletes will compete in nearly every Olympic sport, including wrestling, which was opened to women for the first time at the Athens Games. The Japanese are expected to be the dominant force with the Americans, Bulgarians and Chinese expected to pose a threat in their quest for Olympic gold.

——–

Aline Bannayan is a reporter and editor based in Amman, Jordan. A former national basketball team player, she has covered sports for the Jordan Times as well as the AP in Amman since 1991.

Israeli startup turns Asia’s three-wheelers green.
By Sharon Kanon - http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDi…;
July 29, 2008

A snazzy green Yamaha RS100T motorcycle with a sidecar will be the greenest taxi in the Philippines in the near future. The vehicle will be fitted with three compact cylinders of natural gas, using technology developed by Israeli-American company, Energtek.

Energtek’s recent announcement of the first successful conversion of a three-wheeled vehicle to natural gas for commercial purposes created a buzz in motorcycle media, green publications and blogs worldwide.

“Natural Gas is the most practical motor fuel alternative to gasoline,” Lev Zaidenberg, Energtek’s CEO, tells ISRAEL21c. “Extraordinary quantities exist. And, it is cheaper and cleaner than gasoline.”

With oil prices skyrocketing, and increased concern about pollution, Energtek’s proprietary ANG technology is a breakthrough for countries where two and three-wheeled vehicles predominate. During the past year, Energtek has successfully entered three Asian markets - the Philippines, India, and Indonesia.

There are about 300 million two and three wheeled vehicles on the road worldwide - some 25 percent of the world’s automotive market; and nearly 85 percent of them are in Asia.       

Small 2-stroke engines which get a quick surge of power because combustion is completed in only two stokes of the piston, rather than four as in a car, are popular.

* * *

Ban on polluting vehicles

“Energtek’s technology provides a solution for two million tricycle drivers to continue to operate their vehicles, preventing them from suffering a significant loss of livelihood…” says Ariel P. Lim, the Philippine President’s Special Advisor for Public Transport Affairs.

Last Wednesday, Energtek signed an agreement with the Philippine National Oil Company to convert half a million three-wheeled vehicles to natural gas within three to four years.

Energtek will buy the gas from stranded wells in the province of Isabela, and use its technology in a multi-phase conversion project, dubbed “the world’s first commercial ANG project.” It hopes to convert 50,000 tricycles within 18 months. This initiative is expected to generated revenues of $20 million in vehicles equipment sales and $40 million in annual gas sales.

***

Inventive contributions:

“Our R&D division (Angstore) spent more than six years on research and development,” says Zaidenberg, a maverick entrepreneur who also founded Mutek, as well as Angstore, and has received awards for his inventive contributions to the Israel Air Force and the Israel Computer Society.

“Natural Gas is abundant but often ’stranded,’ not easily accessible,” explains Zaidenberg. “Our innovative technology is not dependent on pipelines. Unlike oil, natural gas does not have to be refined.

The plan in the Philippines pilot project is to compress the Natural Gas on the stranded gas site into small cylinders that will then be shipped to distribution outlets throughout the country.

The Joint Venture with DML PTE will commercialize Energtek’s technology in Singapore, and Malaysia as well as Indonesia. Revenues are expected to surpass $100 million.

***

Asked about Energtek’s next marketing target, Zaidenberg says: “Our next move will probably be to the US and South America. We are looking for countries that are oil importers, and have natural gas. Look, the price of gasoline is over $4.00 a gallon. The big gap is in our favor.”

“We have the right technology at the right time,” adds Zaidenberg. “Just think a short time ago we were just five guys with technology, no business. Now we have a business that is worldwide. Even Iran, the third largest oil producer is converting to gas.”

Topics about which people worry - represented proportionately by brain-space occupied by these topics.

D8 summit calls for halt to biofuels.
By John Aglionby in Kuala Lumpur for The Financial Times,  July 8 2008.

The world should halt the development of biofuel crops on arable land and instead boost agricultural production to solve the global food crisis and prevent “disaster”, the Malaysian and Indonesian leaders warned on Tuesday at the opening of a developing countries summit.

Abdullah Badawi, the Malaysian prime minister, said the use of arable land for biofuels “should be stopped because such action will deepen the global food scarcity and further drive up food prices”. “We must not allow the zeal for energy security to come into direct conflict with the basic need for food production,” he told the Developing Eight summit in Kuala Lumpur.

The D8 comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. All are prominent members of the Organisaton of the Islamic Conference.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, blamed “some developed countries” for exacerbating the food crisis by allowing biofuel development on arable land.

“The idea is to reduce greenhouse gases and to wean themselves away from dependence on fossil fuels,” he said in his speech. “It is not a good idea: it has only worsened the global food crisis.”

The leaders’ statements join a growing consensus that biofuel production has contributed more to soaring food prices than was thought to be the case until a few months ago.

On Monday Britain hinted it might reassess its biofuel targets after a review by a former Environment Agency chief indicated that while there is probably enough land to meet agricultural needs until 2020, biofuels had contributed to rising food prices. The World Bank has expressed similar sentiments to the British report.

Mr Yudhoyono predicted there would be “no quick fix” to the crisis.

“But we must act on it at once and in concert,” he said. “To delay concerted action on this great challenge of our time is to court disaster.”

The president is now en route to Japan to meet with the G8 leaders on Wednesday. Indonesian officials said he would urge the G8 members to “share the burden” endured by developing countries in the face of soaring oil and food prices.

Both Mr Badawi and Mr Yudhoyono stressed the need to find ways to boost agricultural production. Neither, however, mentioned whether they would halt, let alone reverse, their planned expansions of oil palm plantations.

Indonesia and Malaysia are, respectively, the world’s largest and second largest producers of palm oil, which is becoming increasingly popular as a biofuel.

Much of the development, particularly in Indonesia, has come at the expense of vast swathes of rainforest, which is widely considered to exacerbate climate change.

Mr Badawi also took aim at the oil futures market, suggesting the international community “examine how [it] might be organised to assist in stabilising [oil] prices.”

He said the summit should send a united message on how to confront the oil and food price crises. Analysts believe the D8 will struggle to reach consensus on what to do about high oil prices because it comprises both significant oil producers and consumers.

The summit is also expected to approve a roadmap to strengthen cooperation between D8 members, particularly on intra-member trade. The aim is to boost this from the current figure of $60bn to $517.5bn within a decade.

Global Markets - latest news

No formal greenhouse targets at G8 summit.
Bush: Call for reductions marks ’significant progress’

By William L. Watts & Chris Oliver, MarketWatch. a Wall Street Journal Blog.
July 9, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Leaders of 16 nations at a multilateral gathering in Japan agreed to back a plan for making long-term reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, although the deal fell short of establishing formal reduction targets.

“We, the leaders of the world’s major economies, both developed and developing, commit to combat climate change in accordance with our common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” the nations said Wednesday in a communiqué at the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.

The G8 nations include the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy Canada and Russia.

Backers included Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa, in addition to the G8.

But the joint statement didn’t include language from Tuesday’s statement issued by the G8 leaders, in which they said they shared a vision to cut greenhouse emissions in half by 2050. See full story.

Only three of the non-G8 countries in attendance — South Korea, Australia and Indonesia — backed the 50% reduction, Reuters reported, and this prevented inclusion of the language in Wednesday’s statement.

Leaders of emerging economies have argued that developed countries should first spell out their own goals for emissions reductions.

All the same, President Bush hailed the final statement as a sign of “significant progress.”
“The G8 expressed our desire to have a significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. We made it clear and the other nations agreed that they must also participate in an ambitious goal, with interim goals and interim plans to enable the world to successfully address climate change,” Bush said. “And we made progress, significant progress, toward a comprehensive approach.”

In the end, Wednesday’s statement said the leaders shared a vision for “long-term cooperative action, including a long-term global goal for emission reductions that assures growth, prosperity, and other aspects of sustainable development, including major efforts towards sustainable consumption and production, all aimed at achieving a low-carbon society.”

William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in London.
Chris Oliver is MarketWatch’s Asia bureau chief, based in Hong Kong.

So both gentlemen were not in Hokkaido - their reporting is based on material they read on the web - Did the WSJ really see it like we did - that this G8 exercize, under Japan leadership subservient to the US wishes, will not come up with real and meaningful results?

——————

If it was a G8 meeting - why not take as final decision what was decided already on Friday without the participation of the other 8?

Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa - the remaining 5 out of the additional 8 - plain and simple said that they do not participate in games when the G8 do not have the stomach for real figures put down in real time. By saying that they want first to see a real offer from the G8, before putting on the record their own participation in emissions reduction, they are actually in full rights and have done nothing worse then pointing flashlights at the meager document of the G8.

As we said already in another posting today, it was the Bush, Harper Fukuda position that doomed these 2008 G8 meetings under Japan leadership. President Bush won this battle.

Our only remaining question is - why did Fukuda invite the other 8 to participate? Had the G8 met in their own closed cocoon and come up with a final declaration, was that not expected to be better then having a bigger show with folks to be held later as responsible for this failure? What does now Fukuda frame next to his Prime Minister chair in order to say that the meeting he chaired was a success?

—————–

And the previous article - a day earlier - that was referenced in the July 9, 2008 article - The VISION thing that came to nothing a day later:

G8 leaders share ‘vision’ on emission cuts.
By MarketWatch
July 8, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) - Leaders of the Group of Eight wealthy nations on Tuesday said they shared a “vision” to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050.

In a joint statement on the environment and climate change, the G8 leaders said they “seek to share” with all parties involved in U.N.-brokered talks “the vision of … the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050, recognizing that this global challenge can only be met by a global response.”
Leaders of the G8 nations - the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia - are meeting in Toyako, Japan.

Japan and the European Union are seeking to formalized emission-reduction targets, building on last year’s general agreement among the G-8 nations to “consider seriously” the reductions.
Senior officials held a late-night session Monday to iron out the wording behind the agreement that would allow leaders to sign onto the deal without committing to a numerical target, a Reuters report said.

The U.S. and several other developed countries { read here Canada and Japan } have said they will not enter an agreement to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions which does not include binding commitments by growing industrial powers such as China and India to cut carbon.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was pleased with progress made toward climate change and other issues following a morning meeting with President Bush.

“As always, we’ve had a very interesting exchange of view, very intensive exchange of view, and let me tell you that I’m very satisfied with the work that has gone on, on the G8 documents, as regards progress on the issue of climate change, cooperation in the area of food and oil,” Merkel said at a photo opportunity with Bush.

This year’s summit, held at a lakeside resort on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, brought together leaders from 22 nations, including the top G8 officials.

{ 8+8+5 - the last five are Africans in need and they were not even deemed a reference in the article the following day that speaks of 16 - so, our question is even more to the point - if you had no intention in bringing these other 13 into the decision making process, except for eventually blaming the first 5 from among the second group of 8 for the failure, who needed here also the second group of five that did not even get invited to dinner? All of this is part of our various postings these last few days. We predicted disaster - and here it is starring at us }