G8 2008 futile rhetoric on climate

Reacting to the statement released by the G8 in Hokkaido, Friends of the Earth spokesperson Karen Orenstein said that G8 leaders spewed futile rhetoric that will do nothing to stop the toll that global warming is taking on people and the planet.

MEDIA ADVISORY

July 8, 2008

G8 BANKS ON MASSIVE GLOBAL CLIMATE POLLUTION

HOKKAIDO, JAPAN, July 8, 2008 -- *Reacting to the statement released

today by the G8 in Hokkaido, Friends of the Earth spokesperson Karen

Orenstein said:

“G8 leaders today signaled their support for climate chaos by spewing

futile rhetoric that will do nothing to stop the toll that global

warming is taking on people and the planet.

By giving support to the World Bank, the world’s largest multilateral

fossil fuel financier and major deforester, for its ill-conceived and

unjust climate funds, G8 leaders have left the fox to guard the hen house.

The climate funds undermine United Nations climate negotiations, promote

dirty industries like coal and force developing countries to pay for the

industrialized world’s pollution by providing loans for them to adapt to

the climate crisis. The World Bank is a spectacularly unqualified

institution to address climate change, and the G8 summit has been a

spectacular failure in addressing the climate emergency.

The G8 countries’ agreed long-term global goal is totally inadequate and

they have failed to commit to mid-term targets. Their demands for

developing countries to agree to binding commitments show total

disregard for their own responsibilities towards the rest of the world.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, IN JAPAN:

 Karen Orenstein, Friends of the Earth US (English) Tel: +1-202-640 8679

(US mobile)

Yuri Onodera, Friends of the Earth Japan (Japanese & English)

Tel: +81 90 65049494 (Japanese mobile)

Joseph Zacune, Friends of the Earth International (English, Spanish)

Tel: +44 79 67877593 (UK mobile)