Africa, Oh Africa

The G8 Summit has ended early, so Tony Blair could return to London and the efforts under way to find the perpetrators of yesterday's bombings. I am grateful to Neil for his post from earlier today, as it so perfectly expresses the feelings I have had since I heard the news from London yesterday morning. Today's news is the premature winding-up of the summit, and the statements issuing from it on both aid to Africa and global warming.

Before this conference of the leaders of the wealthiest countries in the world even began, its stated goals on global warming had been watered down at the behest of our own "leader," GWB, who continues to believe Michael Crichton's word on global warming over the research of the world's top scientists. The science academies of the world's leading industrialized nations had issued a joint statement which called for "prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and warned that delays will be costly." This was the statement that was going to be used in the G8 talks on global warming. Then came the news of a leaked draft of a White House document showing that the Bush administration was engaged in an "extraordinary effort" to completely undermine the science of global warming, that the US position had hardened during the G8 negotiations, that all references to the fact that climate change is a serious threat to human health and ecosystems were removed from the statement, as well as the generally accepted scientific consensus that climate change has already begun. Also removed was any suggestion that human activity is to blame for climate change.

Although earlier Blair had been very anxious to make international efforts to curb global warming one of his two high priorities in the summit, ultimately he seemed willing to accept the watered-down statement in exchange for making a deal with Bush on aid to Africa.

And that does seem to be the way that things shook out at the G8 this week. From the Globe and Mail online today, this is the word: "They failed to overcome stiff resistance from the Bush administration to launching a more aggressive attack on global warming." The best that could be gotten from the U.S. was their agreement to the statement that "while uncertainty remains in our understanding of climate science, we know enough to act now." Which sounds puzzlingly vague to me. Willing to "act now" but not willing to commit to any real terms of action.

Even more puzzling in light of the fact that the G8 nations agreed on a huge package of aid for African countries. The continent of Africa is already suffering the effects of climate change, in fact it is on the front line of this global problem. A group called the Working Group on Climate Change and Development urged the G8 to help Africa leapfrog from "dirty development" by moving to sustainable and renewable energy. This coalition of aid and environment campaigners has published a report called "Africa - Up in Smoke?" It insists that African poverty and climate change are inseparably linked, and that the first cannot be solved without dealing with the second.

It is not necessary to read the entire document (it is long, but quite compelling) to know what a powerful statement it is, just read the Executive Summary and Recommendations. Present aid policy does not take into account ways to diversify what is grown in the local agricultural systems in order to manage the risk of a changing climate. "What hasn't been thought through at all at is whether the development package attached to the proposed debt relief and increased aid-flows makes people more or less vulnerable to climate change." (Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation, lead author of the report.) Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "Policies to end poverty in Africa are conceived as if the threat of climatic disruption did not exist." (Emphasis mine.)

This does seem to be the opinion consensus about aid to Africa without action on climate change on that continent and in the entire world. Nicola Saltman of the World Wide Fund for Nature says: "All the aid we pour into Africa will be inconsequential if we don't tackle climate change." So, once again, thanks to the leader of the free world, the G8 nations have failed to connect the dots between climate change and the devastation of Africa. To quote the Very Rev. Donald Mtetemela, bishop of the diocese of Ruaha in Tanzania: "If you don't deal with climate change now, it means that when you give more aid, cancel the debt and reform the trade laws, this effort will all be wasted. It will be just like putting the money on a fire."

Just as I finished this article a new story on the final words from the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, came in from ENS. It doesn't add much news, but does discuss the disappointment of environmentalists and members of third world attendees at the summit.

(Some material in this post was gathered from articles on allafrica.com and an article first published in The Independent, available on Common Dreams, Global Warming in Africa: The Hottest Issue of All. )

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