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As of: August 2011

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G8 - the Group of Eight

Strength entails responsibility. It is the goal of the Group of Eight (G8) to assume this responsibility jointly. The G8 consists of the United States of America, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada and, since 1998, Russia. Since 1977, the EU has also sent its own delegation to the G8 Summit. The first meeting took place in 1975 in the Château de Rambouillet, and brought together the heads of state and government of the seven leading industrialised countries and Russia. In terms of status, the G8 is not an international organisation with its own organs or a permanent secretariat. Originally it was a purely informal forum to discuss global economic and foreign policy issues in a small group. Since its inception the G8 has moved a long way away from the character of a fireside chat. Today G8 meetings take place all year round and at various levels, allowing the member states to coordinate joint positions on a number of policy issues. The Presidency of the G8 rotates annually among its members

G8 activities in environmental policy

The environment has long been an integral part of the G8 policy agenda. The focus has traditionally been on current issues such as climate protection, biodiversity, forest protection, marine protection and the fight against environmental crime, but in particular on economically relevant topics. A milestone in the G8's environmental policy was the initiative adopted in Genoa in 2001 and successfully implemented in the following years to make trade and environment a key topic for the WTO trade talks in Doha. Climate protection was made a priority area for the first time at the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. As a result the heads of state and government adopted a plan of action on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development. The German G8 Presidency was instrumental in laying the foundation for a long-term global climate protection target. It aims at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050. A second major success was the drawing up of a road map to bring about a UN climate agreement. Biodiversity was another topic which was put on the G8 agenda for the first time during the German Presidency. The "Potsdam Initiative – Biological Diversity 2010" set in motion specific activities concerning science, industry, trade, funding and marine protection. When the G8 met at Heiligendamm, Germany also invited the major newly industrialising countries - China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa - for the first time to a G8 Summit meeting. As part of the "Heiligendamm process" the G8 and the newly industrialising countries decided to have a particularly close cooperation in several areas such as for example energy efficiency. In 2009 during the Italian G8 Presidency the year 1990 was incorporated into the long-term global climate protection target as reference year. Furthermore, the G8 states acknowledged the necessity to limit global warming to 2°C. Moreover, between 2005 and 2008 a meeting of Energy and Environment Ministers of the 20 major energy-consuming countries and the International Energy Agency took place (the so-called Gleneagles Dialogue).

How the G8 relate to the G20 and the MEF

In response to the global economic and financial crisis the heads of state and government of the G20 met in 2009 in Canada and Korea. The next G20 Summit will be held in Cannes under the French Presidency in November 2011. Member states of the G20 include - next to the G8 countries - China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the EU. The decision taken at the 2009 Pittsburgh summit of the G20 to hold annual G20 summits from 2011 onwards introduced the transition from the G8 to the G20 format. For topics which go beyond the financial policy agenda such as environment and development policy, the G8 format will stay in place because here the G20 have yet to find their role. At the Toronto G20 summit which took place from 26 to 27 June 2010, immediately following the G8 summit, the heads of state and government proclaimed their support of the UN climate negotiations. The G20 Summit was held in Seoul on 11 and 12 November 2011 at which progress was achieved, inter alia, in the G20’s addressing the issue of climate funds. It would be strongly welcomed by Germany if the G20 concerned itself with climate change and took an ambitious stance on the matter since the 20 largest industrialised nations are also the major CO2 emitters responsible for 80% of global emissions.

In addition to the G8 and G20, climate is also a topic on the agenda of the Major Economies Forum (MEF) initiated by the United States in 2007. The Forum brings together the 16 major economies – the G8, Brazil, South Africa, India, China, Mexico, Australia, Korea and Indonesia – to conduct an in-depth discussion of key issues on climate change from the perspective of industrialised and newly industrialising countries. The forum has become an important flanking process in international climate politics. In 2009, a Major Economies meeting took place in L'Aquila, Italy within the framework of the G8 summit. The meeting was concluded with a joint declaration on climate change and energy security.

Results of the G8 summit 2011

The G8 summit took place in Deauville, France, on 26 and 27 May 2011. The French Presidency focused above all on the areas of the Internet, nuclear safety, development/Africa and security policy. In their Declaration, the G8 stressed their continued commitment to the goals of limiting effectively the increase in global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius and also supported the goal of industrialised countries reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in aggregate by 80% or more by 2050 compared to 1990 or a more recent reference year. Furthermore, the heads of state advocated swift establishment of a low carbon economy and fully supported the objective of concluding a comprehensive and binding agreement involving all countries. They also strongly supported South Africa as the forthcoming Presidency of the Durban Conference on Climate Change to be held from 28 November until 9 December 2011. The G8 also explicitly welcomed the establishment of a global Green Climate Fund.

In the area of biodiversity, they acknowledged in particular the outcomes of the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity which was held in the autumn of 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, as being a significant step forward, inter alia, on the issue of "Access and Benefit Sharing“(ABS). They also welcomed the establishment of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The G8 also focused on the theme “green growth” and nuclear safety – also in response to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in March 2011 – and on the demand for all countries to carry out comprehensive risk and safety assessments of their existing nuclear installations.

Results of the G8 summit 2010

The G8 summit which took place on 26 June 2010 in Muskoka in Canada focused on the topics development/Africa, international foreign and security policy and environmental protection. The G8 tackled the issued of climate protection once again this year. The 2°C target recognised last year and the concept of peaking (peak in greenhouse gas emissions) was reaffirmed at Muskoka. The same applies to the long-term objective of the G8 to bring down emissions from industrialised countries by at least 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels or a later reference year and to the global long-term goal of at least halving global emissions by 2050 without, however, mentioning a reference year. The G8 are committed to releasing the so-call "fast start" climate funds for 2010 to 2012 pledged at Copenhagen and they welcome the efforts made by the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Moreover, the G8 agreed on increased cooperation in the field of adaption to climate change.

Biodiversity was a topic which was put on the G8 agenda for the first time during the German Presidency in 2007. At Muskoka the G8 recognised the outstanding importance of biological diversity for human wellbeing and acknowledged the fact that the 2010 biodiversity target will not be achieved. The international target aimed at significantly reducing the extinction of species by 2010. The G8 supported Japan in its efforts regarding the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and acknowledged the necessity of determining a political post-2010 framework. Besides, the G8 welcome the establishment of an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Results of the G8 summit 2009

For the first time G8 and newly industrialising countries agree on 2-degree target

The G8 Summit took place from 8 to 10 July 2009 in L'Aquila, a city recently struck by an earthquake. The Summit focussed on the global economic and financial crisis, climate change and greater cooperation of industrialised countries with Africa and newly industrialising countries. On the second day of the G8 Summit the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) discussed new strategies for combating climate change. The Major Economies Forum comprises the world's 16 largest economies, i.e. the G8 countries, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, South Korea, Australia and Indonesia. MEF countries produce approx. 80 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Also participating are Denmark, as host of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, and Sweden as the present and subsequent holders of the EU Presidency.

The results in detail:

Climate protection

It is considered a great success that both the G8 countries and the major newly industrialising countries agreed to limit the average temperature increase to a maximum of 2 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era (so-called 2°C target).

The G8 partners acknowledged their frontrunner role in climate protection and agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent or more by 2050. With regard to this long-term goal for industrialised countries the G8-Declaration [http://www.g8italia2009.it/static/G8_Allegato/G8_Declaration_08_07_09_final,0.pdf] (PDF-document, 374 KByte) defines "1990 or more recent years" as a reference year, outlining, however, that efforts need to be comparable.

The G8 thus confirmed and strengthened the global long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. A reference year has not yet been determined.

At the Major Economies Forum agreement was reached with the newly industrialising countries to work together to define a global long-term goal for 2050 before the Copenhagen conference. At the Major Economies Forum, newly industrialising countries also declared their willingness to take swift action to achieve a meaningful deviation from the "business-as-usual" emissions scenario. They will receive financial and technical support for their efforts.

The concept of "peaking" (i.e. peak of global greenhouse gas emissions) was laid down in the G8 and the MEF-Declaration [/english/international_environmental_policy/downloads/doc/print/46359.php]. However, there was agreement that the peak should take place as early as possible.

The G8 declared their willingness to contribute their "fair share" to funding global climate protection and supported the development and implementation of an effective financing mechanism for a post-2012-regime. With the exception of the least developed countries all countries are expected to contribute to funding global climate protection according to criteria to be agreed.

The summit also agreed to promote the further expansion of the carbon market. The objective is to link national and sub-national emissions trading schemes and establish a global carbon market on this basis.

Newly industrialising and developing countries are to be involved in this process.

Biodiversity

The G8 reaffirmed their target to significantly reduce the global loss of biodiversity by 2010. The heads of state and government also recognised the need to develop a "vision" for biodiversity conservation for the post-2010 period. The summit declaration also supports the Potsdam Initiative on Biodiversity [http://www.kooperation-international.de/g8/themes/info/detail/data/45856/backpid/12/?PHPSESSID=c332] (PDF-document, 31 KByte) adopted at Heiligendamm in 2007 and emphasises the TEEB-Study [http://www.ufz.de/data/economics_ecosystems_biodiversity87179984.pdf] (PDF-document, 8,16 MB) (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) reviewing the economic value of biodiversity.

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