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Catholic Charities Say G8 Falls Short On Climate Change Print E-mail
Written by CISA   
Wednesday, 09 July 2008
The world's rich nations have announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050, but international Catholic charities say that the figure falls short of what is needed to save the planet.

Caritas Internationalis representative Joseph Cornelius Donnelly is at the G8 Summit in Japan, representing the 162 member organisations of the Catholic charity network.

"The G8 has a track record of producing glass-is-half-full glass-is-half-empty statements. But now they're playing heads or tails with the future of our planet in a decision that will affect generations to come long after this G8 is forgotten," Donnelly said.

"Caritas welcomes the improvement in strengthening commitments from last year. If this is the starting point of negotiations then we're in business. If it is the hoped for goal then it represents a huge failure in leadership."

The G8 said mid-term goals would be needed to hit the shared target, but that it would be up to individual countries to adopt them. Last year, the same countries agreed only to "seriously consider" a cut of 50 percent by 2050.

Caritas says that to maintain life as we know it now we need to cut green-house gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 to keep global warming below an increase of 2°C over the base pre-industrial period temperatures of the planet.

The poor and marginalized are the most vulnerable to natural disasters caused or aggravated by climate change. Over 20 million people were affected by flooding in South Asia last year, Mexico had the worst floods for 50 years and huge swathes of Africa from the Atlantic seaboard to the Indian Ocean were under water.

The danger is that inadequate resources pledged to development will be diverted to climate change. Caritas hopes that the final G8 communiqué pledges action on climate change with extra aid on development.

Adaptation programs that help developing countries address the threats caused by climate change will cost an estimated US$50bn each year. Calculated on ability to pay, and by their historic contribution to the causes of climate change, the United States of America, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Australia should contribute over 95 percent of the finance needed.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )