The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his fellow G8 leaders carry moral and economic clout to Japan this week, where mull over the worldÕs problems. They speak for nearly 900 million people and command $30 trillion in economic output, more than half the worldÕs wealth. It is within their power to ease two great problems front and centre at their summit: global warming and global hunger. Yet expectations are low. The leaders are beset by bear markets, faltering growth, job losses and $140-a-barrel oil. They will be tempted to retreat from past pledges and to dodge new ones. Harper reportedly planned to argue that there is no point in the G8 cutting greenhouse gases unless major emitters such as China and India also do so. As Liberal Leader Stphane Dion rightly believes, the affluent G8 countries are far better placed to shrink their carbon footprints first and press others to follow. There is concern, as well, that the G8 may backslide on its 2005 pledge to boost development aid to Africa to $25 billion by 2010. Only a fraction has been delivered. The World Bank, meanwhile, needs $10 billion to ease hunger in 50 hard-hit countries. And the G8 nations havenÕt agreed on how to roll out a promised $60 billion campaign to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. This is not global leadership. Last year the G8 agreed to Òseriously considerÓ cutting greenhouse gases in half by 2050. Yet in the run-up to this week, they were wrangling over whether to formally endorse that target. On hunger, the G8 must recommit to doubling aid for Africa, bankroll emergency food relief, and address the UNÕs plea for $15 billion annually to fund a new Ògreen revolutionÓ to boost global production. That involves investing in agribusiness in poor countries, shifting away from corn and oilseed biofuels that compete with food crops, and encouraging production by lowering barriers to food imports. The G8 should also speed the funds to curb AIDS and other diseases. Rather than enable G8 inaction, Harper should commit Canada to serious greenhouse gas reductions. He has yet to come up with a vigorous strategy to discourage fossil fuel use. And while Canada claims to be living up to its commitment to double aid to Africa to $2.1 billion this year, analysts note that Ottawa is using a lower base year than originally forecast, thereby saving $700 million. At the least, those savings should be channelled into UN programs designed to ease the food crisis.
