Global warming issue heats up G-8 meeting

On June 2, German police clashed with hundreds of protesters after a large demonstration in advance of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. Nearly 130 protesters were arrested and up to 1,000 people were injured in fighting between police and demonstrators.

Up to 16,000 German security personnel are on duty for the three-day meeting. Leaders will be sealed off from tens of

G8 leaders meet in Germany.

thousands of demonstrators by a daunting 12-kilometre fence. June 8, the final day of the summit, has been declared by environmentalists to be an international day of action against global warming.

The G-8 is a club that includes the major imperialist nations—the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, France, Germany and Italy—and Russia. Russia, although not an imperialist power, is considered a full member of the group, but is left out of certain meetings, particularly those of the finance ministers.

The summit is supposed to focus on issues of global warming, poverty in Africa and AIDS.

One goal of the meeting was to issue a document on global warming. The United States has refused any international effort to reduce the emissions that cause global warming, declining to ratify even the modest goals of the Kyoto Protocol.

Empty proclamations

Less than a week before the G8 Summit, Bush announced his global warming plan. “My proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases” in consultation with the other major greenhouse gas emitting nations plus industry leaders.  

Bush also called for tariff reductions on the part of poor nations: “If you’re truly committed to helping the environment, nations need to get rid of their tariffs, need to get rid of those barriers that prevent new technologies from coming into their countries,” referring to so-called environmentally friendly technologies.

According to Bush’s proposal, countries would set “mid-term national targets and programs” depending on “their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs.” He added that there would be a “strong and transparent” method to assess progress in reaching the non-binding targets.

Bush is himself contributing to global warming with a significant emission of meaningless hot air intended to create the impression of caring about climate change. About Bush’s statement, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s top climate expert, David Doniger, commented: “It’s too late to slide by on vague calls for unenforceable long-term goals.”

What do the other G-8 nations want to do?

One difference between the European countries’ proposals and Bush’s is that the European Union leaders want

climate change agreements to be negotiated through the United Nations, while Bush’s plan opts instead for a series of meetings between the 15 nations with the highest rates of carbon emissions.

The other G-8 countries support a market-based approach to emissions reductions called carbon trading. In this system emissions are set at a certain level. If a company emits below that level, they can sell their extra carbon credits to another company, which then has permission for extra emissions above the limit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others are floating an overall emissions reduction goal of 50 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Currently, environmental activists believe that 80 percent reduction would be a more appropriate goal.

The countries at the summit did not agree to implement any hard goals to reduce greenhouse emissions. This is no surprise. Instead, the summit issued a joint statement on June 7. In it, the countries agreed to stabilize, then reduce, greenhouse emissions and “seriously consider” plans to cut emissions in half by 2050.

While it is technically possible to reduce emissions within the framework of a capitalist economic system, one of the biggest obstacles to implementing serious emissions reductions is the anarchy and competition of the capitalist system itself. Capitalism always puts the pursuit of profits ahead of the common good.

The G-8 consists primarily of countries that have profited from the uncontrolled industrial development that has fueled global warming.

“Market-based” solutions and plans negotiated through the imperialist-dominated United Nations will still protect the interests of the capitalists, instead of the world’s workers and poor. Yet it is the working class that will be most severely impacted by the predicted rise in global temperatures.