Climate Change Pushed Off the G8 Agenda in June 2013

The crisis in Syria has pushed climate change off the G8 agenda. Although world leaders at the G8 summit in Lough Erne, Ireland were supposed to address climate change at the June meeting, but this was preempted by events in Syria.

The preceding G8 meeting in April delivered a weak communique on climate change that articulated support for the UNFCCC climate talks and indicated that climate risk would be discussed at the Lough Erne meeting in June. Climate change is one of five priorities for the UK’s G8 presidency.

In March France and Germany indicated that they wanted climate change to be a priority issue at the Lough Erne meetings, but this was rejected. Instead world leaders focused on Syria, transparency and tax reform.

The G8 Climate Change Roundtable: Principles, Policy and Participating Companies

The G8 Climate Change Roundtable was formed in January 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Its purpose was to address the global climate change issue facing governments, business and civil society. The first meeting was held in Gleneagles, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005, to coincide with the 31st G8 summit.

The roundtable was established by twenty-three leading international businesses with the assistance of G8 President and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, to co-operatively engage in a global plan of action. The aim of the group was to ensure that a long-term policy framework was set up to enable consistent and transparent market-based solutions in mitigating climate change, while also addressing issues linked to climate change; such as economic growth, poverty, and adequate energy supplies. Carbon trading is one of the most popular pricing mechanisms used to the reduce greenhouse emissions worldwide.