E3G

BBC Radio 4: G8 Summit Analysis

By Chris Littlecott

The 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles was overshadowed in many ways by the bombings in London.

Prior to the summit, much attention was focussed on whether Tony Blair would achieve his aim of securing a strong statement on Climate Change.

Two days later, E3G Chief Executive John Ashton appeared on the Radio 4 Today programme to discuss whether this did in fact occur, and what needs to happen next

You can listen to the archive recording of John’s interview on the Today programme website – scroll down the page to 7.50 am and click the link.

The transcript of the interview follows here below.

Introduction – Edward Stourton: There seems to be two schools of thought about yesterday’s G8 communiqué on climate change.

One says that the Prime Minister pushed the Americans as far as he realistically could, and secured an agreement that may have enduring value.

The other says the statement was nothing like strong enough and America should have been left isolated at the summit.

So how did the outcome match up to Mr Blair’s own stated objectives? For his assessment, here’s our correspondent Roger Harrabin…

[0.22 – 2.58 Audio report from Roger Harrabin, Environment Correspondent. Report includes input from David Hawkins of NRDC stating that if the USA had been isolated at the summit it might have been a better outcome.]

[Report ends with “The key question is does this communiqué do anything to address the scientists’ demand that we tackle climate change, urgently.”]

Edward Stourton: Roger Harrabin reporting. Well, Brian Hoskins is the Royal Society’s research professor; John Ashton is the Chief Executive of the environmental group Third Generation Environmentalism, and a former head of environmental affairs at the Foreign Office.

[Questions to Brian Hoskins on the science, and whether the Prime Minister was right to include the USA in the communiqué.]