E3G

G8 2005: Beyond the text

By Tom Burke

Following the conclusion of the 2005 G8 Summit at Gleneagles, E3G Founding Director Tom Burke contributed an article to Open Democracy analysing the summit’s outcomes.

In particular, Tom focuses on the political nature of the G8 process, identifying its strengths and weaknesses as a result.

He also suggests that the next move must be “beyond the text” - with Britain’s European Union Presidency an opportunity to channel investment into climate stability.

Beyond the text

Tom Burke

Labouring mightily to produce textual mice is an inevitable feature of the increasingly bizarre, and expensive, circus that the G8 has become.Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was far-sighted and courageous in setting climate change as one of the principal goals for his presidency of it. There was always a risk of failure and the intervention of the London bombers prevented the nature of that failure from becoming more apparent.

Blair’s primary goal was to get the United States administration to accept the strength of scientific opinion that now calls with increasing urgency for action on climate change. Many of those who have parsed the text of the communiqué have already pointed out that President Bush went no further than he has gone before. Indeed, parts of the document repeat almost word for word some of his (rare) comments on the subject.