Over 70 people attended the
G8 Climate Counter Summit in Toynbee Hall on March 14 to coincide with the visit to London of the G8 energy ministers. The meeting was organised to share information, hear reports and plan campaigns and action around the G8 and the issues of climate change.
Representatives from about twenty campaigning and environmental groups were greeted by a dozen or so Metropolitan Police, who took everyone's picture as they went in.
The first part of the evening was taken up with first hand reports on climaterelated issues, including the links between the G8 and climate change; a report from the Hadley Centre's conference, Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change; the Kyoto Protocol, carbon trading, and effects on the ground in Brazil; development aid and oil; nuclear power (Blair's preferred option) as a solution to global warming.
The second part was a discussion of the different actions being planned in Scotland and around the country on July 8, the International Day of Action on the Root Causes of Climate Change, the last day of the G8 Summit at Gleneagles. Campaigners' notes • Next meeting of the Counter Summit Group: Monday, April 18, 7 pm, 15 Rampart Street, London El. g&[email protected].
• More information on the Hadley Centre's Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change conference, see www.stabilisation2005.com
• Crisis Forum, academics and NGOs on climate change issues: www.crisis-forum.org.uk
Trapese group [email protected]
• On implementation of Kyoto see: http://www.carbontradewatch.org, http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk,
http://www.sinkswatch.org
Most likely Blair
has chosen these
topics to try and distance himself
from Bush after the
Iraq debacle
Issues discussed included aviation; actions planned in Scotland and around the country; actions focusing on the oil industry; education and outreach; and positive alternatives and solutions to
All sorts of ideas were thrown about, mostly direct action, and while no firm decisions were made another coordinating meeting was planned. (See below) Why the
As Alice, a reporter from the Trapese group, put it the Group of Eight, (USA, UK,
Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan and Canada) was set up in the 1970s to keep control of the world economy and check the power of the developing world countries.
It is an exclusive, selfappointed club representing 12 per cent of the world's population, but making decisions for all 6 billion of us.
The G8's combined power
means that they effectively
control the
Monetary Fund, the World
Trade Organisation, the
World Bank, NATO and the
UN Security Council. The
main summit to be held this
summer in Gleneagles
Scotland is a media show. The
actual decisions are taken at
ministerial meetings
throughout the year.
The presidency of the G8
rotates and this year it is Tony
Blair, who will set the agenda
and host the annual meetings.
Although the G8 mostly concerns itself with the growth of the capitalist global economy
to benefit the rich and powerful nations and corporations, it also chooses topics to focus the talks and the media attention.
Last year in the US it was terrorism and security: this year Blair has chosen Poverty/Africa and Climate Change.
Most likely Blair has chosen these topics to try and distance himself from Bush after the Iraq debacle, especially in the year of the general election. He also hopes to de-legitimise protests and push his role as a 'visionary' statesman.
Blair maintains an unshakable faith in technology and science as a fix to these problems, hoping that the UK and G8 economies will be able to develop technological solutions that can, at the same time increase profitability for capitalism.
If the G8 really wanted to address the issues of climate change they might do better to look at the impact of oil corporations in Nigeria and Angola provide pertect case studies of the deadly cocktail of neo-liberal policies, oil extraction; corrupt corporations etc. (For more information on the G8
and oil corporations see the
excellent corporate watch
briefing, Scotland PLC.)
There is also
nuclear lobby in the labour
government and it is most
likely that climate change will
be used as a way to justify a big nuclear power station building programme - even though it is a myth that low carbon electricity can be produced through nuclear power. The white paper on this will not be announced until after the election.
While protests at G8 summits since the late 1990s have forced issues such as climate change onto the agenda, profitability rather than effectiveness will be the criteria when seeking solutions.
Blair's hypocrisy can be seen with his government's plans for new roads, airport expansion and continuing massive subsidies to the oil industry.
As another reporter at the Counter Summit, who had attended the Hadley Centre conference Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change made clear, there is a real likelihood that we will experience abrupt climate change within the next 50 years.
Possible scenarios include the loss of the Western Antarctic ice sheet (causing major sea level rises); the shutdown of the gulf stream circulation (causing the UK climate to become more like that of Siberia); the shutdown of the 'natural' carbon sink as plant respiration costs exceed the changing chemistry and biology of the worlds oceans (their acidification) and the loss of the Eastern Amazon due to drought resulting from
We cannot afford to leave climate change to the G8 so get involved in the counter summit and protests at Gleneagles in July.