Posted on June, 07 2007

THE LATEST – G8 Sherpas have been negotiating intensely over the past night, to resolve remaining open questions, many of them on climate change. At the same time, voices from different heads of state and government have differed widely. Climate change is scheduled to be negotiated amongst the G8 leaders at 4 p.m. this afternoon. WWF provides a measure for success or failure. 

THE CRITERIA – Only the final declaration will show if the outcome is more useful or more detrimental to international efforts to curb climate change. WWF has 3 criteria to measure success for the outcome of the G8 Summit: 

Concrete targets – in hard numbers – to be set to be achieved: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050, based on base year 1990 emissions; keeping the earth well below 2°C warming of average global temperature; improving efficiency of energy use by 20% by 2020 in industrialized countries. The G8 should also recognize the special responsibility of industrialized countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, an issue that will be of central importance to the G8 meeting with the Heads of State of the 5 largest developing economies on Friday.

Recognizing the preeminence of the UN process and the multilateral regime building on the Kyoto Protocol is of key importance. The next UN conference in Bali in December needs to launch formal negotiations, which need to finish by 2009. Vague words simply refering to the UN process are not enough.

An unequivocal commitment to the global carbon market and its continuity after 2012 – if handled correctly this market can put a price on CO2 pollution and provide a strong, efficient market incentive to dirty companies to clean up their act.

THE QUOTE – “The G8 have to come clean and go beyond vague reassurances. We know that switching to a clean economy has many advantages at little or no additional cost of the world economy,” says Hans Verolme, Director of the WWF Climate Change Programme. “The nine leaders will only be able to justify holding yet another Summit if they come forward with bold and visionary decisions. Their responsibiliy is to move from words to action at Heiligendamm. Chancellor Merkel will have to press the other leaders hard as the world is watching and we have no time to waste.”

BACKGROUND – The G8 Heads of State Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, has climate change and energy efficiency as two of its main topics. The German presidency of the Summit aims at agreeing to launch serious UN negotiations for new emissions reduction targets for the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol from 2012. It proposes energy efficiency goals for the G8 nations to reduce energy consumption by at least 20% by 2020. The G8 is asked to affirm the need for global warming to be kept well below 2°Celsius and to cut global emissions 50% by 2050 from 1990 levels. 

Spokespeople:

Hans Verolme, Director, WWF's Global Climate Change Programme, m +1 202 492 7358.

Regine Guenther, Head of WWF-Germany's Climate Change Programme m + 49 162 29 144 23.

Media team:

ON-SITE:   Martin Hiller, WWF Global Climate Change Programme, +41 79 347 2256, mhiller@wwfint.org.

Ulrike Hellmessen, WWF Germany, +49 162 29 144 19, hellmessen@wwf.de.

OFF-SITE:  Brian Thomson, WWF International, +41 79 477 3553, bthomson@wwfint.org. 

Joern Ehlers, WWF Germany, +49 +49162 29 144 22, ehlers@wwf.de