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The G5 nations also have refused to negotiate on climate concerns at any forum other than the UN platform, UNFCC, which is meeting in Copenhagen in December. The G5 leaders said, climate change issues and food security concerns should not be discussed in isolation, but the entire gamut of social, economic and livelihood concerns must be discussed together and acted upon as they are all interlinked. The G5 has also called for a complete overhaul of global regulatory institutions, including the UN, IMF and the World Bank.
The message of the G5 leaders came across loud and clear at the end of their huddle on Wednesday, hours ahead of the big talk on climate change here where nearly 30 heads of state and government, including several outside the G5 and G8 groupings, met on Thursday.
The final statement of the major economies forum issued in the day represents the concerns of both G5 and G8 nations. India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa make up the G5 club, while the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Japan make up G8.
In their press conference, G5 leaders enumerated five clear agendas for fixing the world’s ailments. Elaborating these, Mexican president Felipe Calderon said the G5 leaders were agreed that all previous resolutions, particularly those made at the G20 summits, must be implemented to restore the global financial and economic order.
Second, developed co-untries must cease to adopt protectionist measures in trade and services and participate in the timely completion of the Doha round. Statements made by the developed countries and their actions did not meet the ground realities to suggest timely completion of the multilateral trade talks, he said.
On the important issue of climate change, that has held the centrestage at this Alpine town, president Calderon reiterated India and other member countries’ stand that the G5 was “committed to shared responsibilities of meeting their commitment on climate change”. In essence, he said, the developed countries must pay for the past sins of scarring the earth. He said the emerging countries were fully committed to working for the environment and finding a way out of the current logjam, provided the developed countries meet their historic liabilities.
On the other important issue of food security, being discussed at G8 but somewhat pushed to the background with the climate debate in the limelight, the G5 leaders said food security issues were of immense concern to poor countries and should be resolved without surrendering their sovereignty.
The G5 also agreed to meet once more to thrash out its agendas ahead of the next round of G20 talks at Pittsburg, Caderon said.
The G5 concerns were also voiced by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, South African president Jacob Zuma, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh (whose statement was already reported by FC on Thursday) and the Chinese deputy prime minister who represented the country’s president Hu Jintao. President Lula said the leaders meeting here were managing to consolidate the consciousness of the G5 and G8 leaders, hinting that a resolution was still far away. “We know where the economic crisis originated. We know who pollutes more and, therefore, is responsible. We are also concerned about food security that involves sovereignty of nations.” President Lula said the issues being discussed at L’Aquila were extremely important and could not be discussed in 300 committees. “We cannot discuss the food crisis and the climate change independent of the economic crisis,” he said.
Expressing solidarity with his teammates prime minister Singh reiterated the need for rich countries to pay for their historic sins.
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