G8 Endorses Halving Global Emissions By 2050

“The G8 leading industrial nations on Tuesday endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, edging forward in the battle against global warming but stopping short of tough, nearer-term targets.

The G8 countries …also called on all major economies to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures. ‘The G8 nations came to a mutual recognition that this target … should be a global target,’ said Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced the endorsement. …European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement constituted a ‘new, shared vision by the major economies’ that would support the UN-led effort on a new global warming accord. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

AFP notes that “…The G8 nations also said they would each set their own interim targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions for a still unspecified amount of time after the Kyoto Protocol's obligations expire in 2012. …

‘It's been a long road getting here. We had some very tough negotiations,’ Fukuda told reporters. But he said the hard part was not yet over, with the G8 set to meet Wednesday in an extended session on climate change with leaders of major developing nations including China, India and Indonesia. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

FT adds that “Their offer will be taken on Wednesday to eight big developing countries …with the aim of getting them to back the 2050 targets in return for promises of cash and technology. …

However, some climate change advocates will point to the vagueness of the language adopted in today's communiqué and to the absence of quantified mid-term targets, although in reality these were never going to be adopted at Toyako. It was unclear what the baseline for the cuts in emissions would be. There has been a sharp disagreement among G8 members about whether to make cuts from 1990 or 2005 levels.

Peter Grant, international director of Tearfund, an advocy group, said: ‘Concrete commitments on climate change are the acid test of success at this summit. …” [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

Dow Jones writes that “…The big question now is whether the emerging economies will conclude that the developed world's offer is enough to induce them to enter into a history-making agreement to join in a future global system of limits. …

The statement of the G8 leaders says that "in order to ensure an effective and ambitious global post-2012 climate regime, all major economies will need to commit’ to ‘meaningful’ reduction plans in the next treaty. That's something the emerging economies have resisted, arguing that most of the buildup of greenhouse gases is the developed world's fault.

But the statement language also opens the door for a deal. It makes clear that the developing countries can undertake very different commitments from those of the developed world, and that the old-line industrial economies bear more of the burden for the foreseeable future. …” [Dow Jones/Factiva]

African Nations Want Aid Promises Met

“G8 leaders are coming under intense pressure to follow through on aid pledges to Africa amid widespread concern that they are breaking their promises and endangering agreed development goals.

Leaders of seven African nations plus the chairman of the African Union (AU), who met G8 leaders on Monday, pressed rich nations to monitor and enforce their commitments more effectively. …Robert Zoellick, World Bank President, who also attended the talks, said there was ‘some movement’ towards the idea that the G8 might engage with the AU. …” [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

AP writes that “…On the agenda was a proposal to set up some kind of mechanism within the G8 to measure progress in fulfilling pledges and hold them to their word, said leaders and aid groups. When the G8 leaders make various commitments, it's important to have a monitoring system,’ said Zoellick, who joined the talks Monday. ‘I think countries need to deliver on their promises, and that was the tone that was generally set in the discussion.’ …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

WSJ notes that “…On the summit's first day, which focused on Africa, discussions appeared to produce no clear progress on aid to the continent. It appeared that the G8 would only start to fix its aid promises next year. …” [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

NYT reports that “After more than three hours of meetings Monday, leaders of African countries and industrialized nations could not agree on how to bring political stability to Zimbabwe. …” [The New York Times/Factiva]

Kyodo News writes that the G8 “…decided to provide African nations and other countries in need with about 100 million mosquito nets to help them better protect people from malaria, sources close to the G8 summit said Tuesday. …

The UN aims to halve the number of deaths from Malaria by 2010 and plans to supply heavily-infected areas with 120 million mosquito nets. The G8 accord is expected to advance the U.N. project, the sources said.” [Kyodo News (Japan)/Factiva]

In a separate piece, Kyodo News writes that the G8 leaders “… agreed Tuesday to aim for a successful completion of the Doha Round of trade liberalization negotiations under the World Trade Organization, Japanese officials said. …” [Kyodo News (Japan)/Factiva]

FT adds that “…The G8 leaders are on Tuesday expected to discuss the impact of biofuels on food prices, the state of the credit markets, the financial situation, and the need to address public hostility to free trade and foreign investments.

G8 leaders are also expected to touch on the dollar, with the group united on the desirability of a stronger dollar, in part to help curb the rise in oil prices, as well as to take pressure off exporters in other economies. But, in the absence of the large central banks, their ability to aid the dollar is limited. ‘It is not clear what you would do to change the value of the dollar other than potentially raise interest rates,’ said Zoellick adding that the US Federal Reserve had to balance the desirability of a stronger dollar against the need to support US growth. …” [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

AFP reports that they said “… Tuesday that government-controlled sovereign wealth funds were playing an important role in the world economy and welcomed efforts by some to be more transparent. …They said they encouraged the work of the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ‘to identify best practices’ for the funds and recipient countries. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

D8 Summit Calls For Halt To Biofuels

 “The world should halt the development of biofuel crops on arable land and instead boost agricultural production to solve the global food crisis and prevent ‘disaster’, the Malaysian and Indonesian leaders warned on Tuesday at the opening of a developing countries summit [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]."

"The D8 comprises eight developing Muslim countries including Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey" [Xinhua]

"Abdullah Badawi, the Malaysian Prime Minister, said the use of arable land for biofuels ‘should be stopped because such action will deepen the global food scarcity and further drive up food prices’. ‘We must not allow the zeal for energy security to come into direct conflict with the basic need for food production,’ he told the Developing Eight (D8) summit in Kuala Lumpur. …

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, blamed ‘some developed countries’ for exacerbating the food crisis by allowing biofuel development on arable land. …” [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

AFP reports that “Leaders from the D8 group of developing nations Tuesday adopted an ambitious 10-year blueprint to substantially increase trade between their countries, an official said. …The trade agreement, to run from 2008 to 2018, details economic and business activities that member nations will pursue over the next decade.

‘It is a guideline for a vision and framework for enhancing cooperation. It covers sectors from investment, agriculture, energy, tourism, transportation, banking and finance,’ the pact said, according to the Malaysian official. Malaysia's Central Bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the D8 nations were now on track to achieve their goal of boosting their intra-grouping trade by 10 to 15 percent by 2018. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Xinhua adds that “…According to recent statistics, D8 total trade in 2007 was $1.15 trillion and the intra-trade was $60.5 billion. … ‘Therefore, it is quite expected that through the implementation of the Roadmap for the next decade, the share of intra-trade in our total trade would be increased, as well as trade being diversified to a desirable level among member countries,’ [Secretary General of D8 Dipo Alam] said. …” [Xinhua/Factiva]

In a separate piece, AFP notes that “Soaring prices of food and fuel could spark widespread political unrest, Badawi Tuesday said at a summit of developing nations. …He urged the D8 nations to modernize their agriculture sectors, in an effort to avert conflict by reversing the drop in food production caused by climate change and natural disasters.

He also urged major oil producers to adopt Saudi Arabia's move to increase oil production, to try to moderate the inexorable rise of the cost of crude which has roughly doubled over the past year. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

ADB Sets Up Fund For Carbon Credits Beyond 2012

 “The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday said it has established a new fund that will use carbon credits generated beyond 2012 to finance clean energy projects in the Asia-Pacific region, extending the current regulatory framework set by the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period ends in 2012.

ADB said the new fund, with an initial size of $100 million, will provide financing up front for ADB-supported projects that will continue to generate carbon credits after 2012.The regional bank said the fund might be increased to $200 million in size if necessary. …

The new ADB fund, called the Future Carbon Fund, can stimulate new investments in clean energy projects even before a new international agreement is reached. Participants in the fund may include both public and private sector entities in ADB's 67 member countries, the regional bank said. …” [Xinhua/Factiva]

FT adds that “… ‘$200 million is not a silver bullet to solve the climate change problem but we hope this model can be replicated by others, either development or commercial banks,’ said Toru Kubo, a clean energy and climate change expert at the ADB who has been involved in launching the fund. …Kubo predicted the new Asian fund would look to finance 10-30 percent of the total cost of about 40 projects.

The World Bank and the European Investment Bank - in partnership with four European banks - have already announced the creation of post-2012 funds but the ADB said that, unlike their pay-on-delivery ap­proach, it had opted for upfront financing to help projects get off the ground. While projects will be selected across the Asia-Pacific region, including in larger countries such as China, Kubo also suggested that it would mostly benefit smaller developing nations. …” [The Financial Times (UK) and Dow Jones/Factiva]

Effort For Lower Drug Prices Would Focus On Gaining Patents

 “Unitaid, the international agency created in 2006 to buy medicine to counter AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, has taken the first step toward establishing a mechanism to deal with a vexing problem of drugs so expensive they are out of reach for most poor people.

The agency is endorsing the creation of a panel of experts to explore the feasibility of a ‘patent pool.’ In theory, the pool would hold licenses on patented medicines, which it could use to have them made at lower costs for poor countries. Initially, it would focus on drugs for infants with AIDS and for adult patients who have developed resistance to first-line drugs. …

The panel would initially have only five experts in patent law and a budget of less than $2 million. ‘The panel might ask for licenses on second-generation drugs,’ said James Love, a longtime advocate for lower drug prices. ‘The patent-holders will either say yes or no - but if they say no, it might raise some eyebrows.’ …” [The New York Times/Factiva]

Also in this Edition: Briefly Noted...

Briefly Noted… Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua called on Monday for a global clampdown on the theft and smuggling of crude oil, an international trade which is fuelling unrest in the country's southern Niger Delta. [Reuters/Factiva]

Sudan's parliament on Monday approved a new electoral law, a crucial step toward scheduled national elections and a democratic transition laid out in peace arrangements after a 21-year civil war. For the first time in Sudan, the law grants women 25 percent of seats in the national assembly and introduces proportional representation by enshrining quotas for political parties. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The Ecuadorian government is studying international actions to see if it can declare part of its foreign debt illegitimate, President Rafael Correa said. Meanwhile, Hugo Arias, a member of a government-run debt commission created last year, told Dow Jones Newswires that what the commission considers illegitimate debt includes Global bonds as well as some debt to World Bank. [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Corruption, red-tape, lack of adequate skilled manpower and poor infrastructure are the major barriers to growth of entrepreneurship in India, a government study has found. The study on Entrepreneurship, conducted by National Knowledge Commission, is based on the basis of one-on-one interviews on 155 entrepreneurs from across the country. [The Press Trust of India Limited/Factiva]

Serbia's parliament approved late Monday a new Western-leaning government that has made membership of the EU its foreign policy priority. After a day-long debate, 127 of 164 deputies present at the session voted for the new cabinet led by Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic. [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Genetically modified crops hold the key to solving the food price crisis, the UK government's former chief scientific adviser David King said. His intervention has come amid growing signs that GM, long viewed with suspicion by consumers and some governments, is being rehabilitated as affordability takes precedence over any ethical or safety scruples. [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

Man Group PLC (EMG.LN), the world's largest hedge fund group by assets, Monday stepped up its push into environmental investing with plans to raise $1.5 billion for a fund aimed at reducing carbon emissions. With a $300 million commitment and development support from Abu Dhabi government investment firm International Petroleum Investment Co., the fund marks Man's biggest launch to date at its new environmental investing unit, and comes as investment firms look to tap growing investor interest in socially responsible environmental projects that also aim to make attractive returns. [Dow Jones/Factiva]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s international working group of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) will gather in Singapore on July 9-10 to thrash out voluntary guidelines that the IMF hopes will be finalized by October this year. [Reuters/Factiva]

A new fertility treatment costing less than $200 could help many infertile women in the developing world escape the physical abuse and social stigma of not being able to have children, experts said Monday. The low-cost in vitro fertilization (IVF) pilot program now under review in Khartoum and Cape Town aims to provide one cycle of treatment for far less than $5,000 to $10,000 the same costs in Europe or the US, they said. [Reuters/Factiva]