Making heads or tails of the G8 and the Major Economies Forum in Italy

by Jake Schmidt

If you aren't in Italy you might not realize, but two events are occurring on global warming pollution where leaders of the 17 largest emitting countries are trying to make progress in the run-up to Copenhagen (this December).

The first event is the annual Group of Eight (G8) which brings together the 8 largest industrialized countries and now regularly has global warming on the agenda (as I discussed last year here). The second is the "Leaders Summit" of the Major Economies Forum (as I discussedhere) which brings together the world's 17 largest emitting countries. -- The G8 declaration has been released on July 8th (available here) while the Major Economies Forum statement was released on July 9th (available here).

These meetings are notorious for taking small steps and are often criticized as being "big on grand statements and small on detailed actions". But how often do you get the leaders of the world's biggest countries in one place making joint political declarations? And given the critical need for Heads of Government to weigh-in if we are going to have any chance of success in Copenhagen (as I discussed here), these events come at an important juncture. Continued...

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Major Economies Meet on Global Warming – What should they decide?

by Jake Schmidt

Ministers from 17 developed and developing countries will be coming to Washington, DC next week (April 27-28) for the Major Economies Forum (MEF). This will be the first of three reported meetings of this “forum” through June of this year -- the next one is scheduled for Mexico -- culminating in a “Leaders meeting” around the G8 meeting in July (or maybe later). Coming out of the recent climate negotiations in Bonn, this forum has become even more important in helping “move from rhetoric to agreement” in Copenhagen later this year.

This forum will bring together countries representing:

• •Over 80% of the world’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion;
• •94% of the greenhouse gas emissions from all developed countries;
• •Over 60% of developing country greenhouse gas emissions; and
• •Almost 60% of the world’s economic output (all values from the World Resources Climate Analysis Indicator Tool).

So to say that these countries are crucial to solving global warming is a huge understatement.  Continued...

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