The G8 countries upheld their plan to increase aid by USD 50 billion by 2010, of which at least USD 25 billion would go to Africa, in an attempt to allay fears they were backsliding on their commitments. The final text did recommit the G8 countries to honor their promises - including a specific reference to the cash committee. The world economic downturn has tightened all national budgets but Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister, argued at the summit that bolstering African agriculture would help tackle food shortages in that continent and globally. The summit in Toyako also agreed to provide USD 60 billion over five years to fight disease globally, though critics said this was a re-announcement of money pledged in 2007 and had no timeline attached.
G8 leaders also pledged USD 6 billion to three funds run by the World Bank and USD 44 billion of its money - to be spent on low carbon energy projects, stopping deforestation and helping nations adapt to climate change. They 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 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 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 at the opening of the Developing Eight (D8) summit. (The D8 comprises eight developing Muslim countries including Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey). 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 D8 summit in Kuala Lumpur.
AFP reports that leaders from the D8 group of developing nations 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.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) 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 Future Carbon Fund, with an initial size of USD 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 USD 200 million in size if necessary. The new ADB fund can stimulate new investments in clean energy projects even before a new international agreement is reached. Participants in it may include both public and private sector entities in ADB’s 67 member countries, Xinhua reported.
