G8 2009: What did they deliver?
Good on food, much more to do on climate change and meeting aid commitments
ON FOOD
Demonstrating political will behind tackling hunger
The G8 put hunger high on the 2009 agenda. There was a major G8 announcement and a separate joint statement on hunger, which formed a substantial part of the communiqué.
8/10: Good but need more attention to detail.
Finding the US $23bn a year needed to meet the MDG goals of halving hunger by 2015.
The G8 made a number of announcements on their aid going to food and agriculture. Firstly they announced that they had spent around $13.4 billion on the food crisis since January 2008.
The figures are inflated and padded out – at least $1.35bn of this is loans. Some $1.5bn is possible funding from the EC.
A welcome announcement of $20 billion over three years towards food and agriculture, but we have concerns that some of this is not new aid and it still falls short of our target of $23 billion per year.
5/10: A Step in the right direction
Stop the expansion of biofuel plantations and eliminate financial and other incentives
For the first time the G8 did acknowledge the links between biofuel production and hunger. However, the G8 report on food security shows that they committed money under the banner of ‘food security’ as going to biofuels when some of this isn’t even going to developing countries!
0/10: fail, never listens in class
Calling for a binding and enforceable code of conduct against land deals in developing countries.
The G8 communiqué was weak, calling for a joint proposal on principles and best practice. Given the huge land grabs that are taking place across Africa at the moment this just isn’t good enough
1/10: Very poor performance
ON AID PROMISES
Find a way to get back on track for on your 2005 commitment to increase aid by $50bn per year, by 2010.
So far they have only found an additional $35 billion but are $15 billion off track. The G8 re-iteration of 2005 aid commitments contained nothing new on how they are going to meet these commitments. Given that we are little over a year away from the 2010 deadline for committing an additional $50 billion in aid, this is disappointing.
2/10: going to fail class next year unless they try harder
"The G8 has again failed to provide credible figures for how they will keep their Gleneagles promises on aid. If the G8 isn’t believable, then it isn’t relevant, given the competing forums of the G20 and the UN,” said Otive Igbuzor, Head of Campaigns at ActionAid.
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Agree to reduce global emissions by at least 80% by 2050 – in time to reach a global deal on climate by in Copenhagen.
Specific reference on the need to keep temperature rises below 2 degree Celsius that science suggests is necessary to stop the planet from cooking. Alsocommitments to cut global emissions by 50% by 2050 – but this is too little, too late. The G8 needs to reduce emissions by 40% by 2020 against 1990 levels.
By 2020 developing countries are going to need around US $182 billion per year to tackle climate change. The G8 should find US $143 of this.
There needs to be substantial cash on the table if we are to broker a deal this year. Without committing the money to help developing countries both adapt and look at low carbon growth, the G8 aren’t serious about their responsibility to tackle climate change. This is why it is vital to commit funds now. Sadly no new funds were committed at the G8, another signal that the world is off track to reach a global climate change deal.
1/10: Do they ever listen?
“Ask the 230 million hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa, who are already suffering the impact of climate change if they can wait until 2050," says Angela Wauye, ActionAid’s Food Rights Coordinator.
© Dario Pignatelli / ActionAid