Contacts: Sergio Jellinek sjellinek@worldbank.org +1202-294-6232 Terry Townshend Terry.Townshend@gmail.com +44(0)7900912808 JUNE 19, 2008, Tokyo, London, Washington DC, Brasilia, New Delhi --- More than 100 lawmakers from the G8 countries and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa will meet in Tokyo next week (June 28-29) for final deliberations on a post 2012 climate change framework that will be presented to the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda ahead of the forthcoming G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, on July 7-9. Prime Minister Fukuda is also scheduled to attend and open the Forum. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and leading global CEOs, such as Jim Rogers of Duke Energy from the US, will participate in a high level dialogue with the lawmakers before they agree on a final package of proposals to present to Prime Minister Fukuda, including positions on biofuels, market mechanisms, technology, adaptation, energy efficiency and illegal logging. "It is time for real commitments and real action. The Gleneagles process concludes in Hokkaido and as lawmakers we will be sending a clear message that there is consensus among legislators from G8 and +5 countries for more ambitious action on climate change and on key elements of a future framework agreement,” said Rt Hon Elliot Morley MP, GLOBE President & UK Prime Minister’s Representative to the Gleneagles Dialogue. The two-day forum, organized by the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE) in partnership with the COM+ Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development, is the fifth global forum on climate change that links directly to the Gleneagles Dialogue, a process involving 20 countries and initiated by Tony Blair under the UK’s G8 presidency in 2005. GLOBE has been leading negotiations with legislators from the parliaments of the G8 and +5 countries for two years in advance of the Japanese G8 Summit. The forum will also feature high-ranking officials from Japan, other G8 countries, multilateral organizations and business leaders. The climate change policy paper “A Post-2012 Climate Change Framework,” to be agreed during the Tokyo Forum, seeks to move beyond the Kyoto Protocol and will be the first time a post-2012 climate framework has been politically tested by leading politicians in all G8 and +5 countries. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will also address the Forum along with Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda, World Bank Managing Director Graeme Wheeler and Governor Koji Tanami of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). They will address the critical issue of how to finance climate adaptation and mitigation with a focus on developing countries. The GLOBE Post-2012 Climate Change Framework paper was written by Lord Michael Jay of the UK who previously negotiated the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit Agreement as Tony Blair’s personal representative. One theme expected to be strongly raised by Prime Minister Fukuda is the issue of forestry. He has already announced that he will make sustainable forestry a priority at the G8 Summit. “While promoting ‘sustainable forest management,’ we need to try to halt deforestation and forest degradation,” Fukuda said in his video message at the opening of the last GLOBE forum held in Brasilia, Brazil, in February. “I intend to promote a discussion on forest-related issues with the countries concerned in order to make important progress towards their resolution,” he added. Fukuda also emphasized the importance of addressing global warming, calling it “an unrivaled challenge to humanity,” and said Japan will work to reduce its own greenhouse emissions, develop emissions controls adaptable by all countries, and help developing countries address environmental issues. “At the forthcoming Toyako G8 Summit, climate change and other environmental topics will be the main focus of the debate. Legislators from G8+5 countries will meet for two days at the GLOBE G8+5 Climate Change Forum in Tokyo, immediately before Toyako, and will finalize the policy papers that have been discussed in other cities around the world, including Brasilia,” said Yoshio Yatsu MP, President of GLOBE Japan and Senior Member of the Liberal Democratic Party. According to GLOBE, legislators from the G8 and major emerging economies will be making very clear to G8 leaders that there is cross-party political support for stronger leadership on climate change at the G8 Summit. ### What is GLOBE? GLOBE (Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment – www.globeinternational.org) is a non-partisan global network of legislators. GLOBE facilitates high level international policy contributions for legislators to the G8 and +5 leaders. What is COM+? The COM+ Alliance (Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development –www.complusalliance.org) is a partnership of international organizations and communications professionals from diverse sectors committed to using communications to advance a vision of sustainable development that integrates its three pillars: economic, social, and environmental. By offering a platform to share expertise, develop best practice, and create synergies, COM+ hopes to actively support creative and inspiring communications across the world to bring sustainable development closer to the public. COM+ members include The World Conservation Union, UNEP, WB, CGIAR, GEF, Inter Press Service, BBC World Service Trust, Reuters Foundation, DEV TV, IFEJ, WBCSD, TVE, Southern Caucus of NGOs, Green Facts, Thomson Foundation, TVEAP, among others. |
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