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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 22:10 GMT | more >>

G8 urged to dump climate funds



By Upstream staff 

G8 leaders meeting in Japan next week to discuss rising oil prices and global warming are being urged to drop the World Bank’s highly controversial climate investment funds.

"The G8 meeting is being promoted as an opportunity to address global warming but G8 nations are promoting policies such as World Bank climate funds and carbon trading for forests that will damage the environment and harm developing country communities that are least responsible for climate change and most vulnerable to its impacts," Friends of the Earth International Climate and Energy Coordinator Joseph Zacune said today.

He added "G8 countries have benefited economically by exploiting fossil fuels across the planet for the past 250 years and they must live up to their historical and current responsibilities by radically cutting their own emissions and supporting developing countries and communities' efforts to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change.”

Campaigners and community leaders will be protesting and speaking out against the World Bank's launch of its climate investment funds during the G8 Summit, which are being supported by the US, the UK and Japan.

“If the Bush, Brown and Fukuda administrations are trying to generate international good will and show commitment to tackling climate change, then the World Bank is the exact wrong institution to do so,” Friends of the Earth US International Finance campaigner Karen Orenstein said in a statement.

“The Bank’s new climate funds will undermine UN climate talks, increase debt, and pay polluters. They will potentially also threaten indigenous people’s land rights through the Bank’s carbon trading for forests initiatives,” she said.

Industrialised countries should reject the Bank’s funds and proactively support a technology financing mechanism for clean, safe and renewable energy under the full authority of the UN, she added.

Friends of the Earth Japan will be holding events parallel to the G8 Summit demanding climate justice, opposing the World Bank's climate funds, and highlighting the dangers of the rush for agrofuels, the group said today.


Friday, 04 July, 2008, 06:41 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 04 July, 2008, 06:46 GMT

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