29 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kyodo News

SYDNEY, Feb. 29 — Japan has invited Australia to be an observer at the Group of Eight summit in July, a local newspaper reported Friday.

The Australian Financial Review quoted government sources saying Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s participation in the G-8 summit has been confirmed by Tokyo. (more…)

Filed by Colum Grove-White under Other, Climate Change

29 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Tokyo, Feb. 29 Kyodo - Japan will provide $184 million of fresh aid to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Friday.

This will bring Tokyo’s total contribution to $850 million since the fund was established in 2002 to combat the three diseases that kill 5 million people each year, according to the Foreign Ministry. (more…)

Filed by Colum Grove-White under Development, Health and Infectious Disease, Conflict Prevention and Human Security

29 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies

TOKYO, Feb. 29 Kyodo - The Japanese government decided Friday to urge the industrial and other sectors to increase voluntary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to attain Japan’s emissions cut goal under the Kyoto Protocol and ‘’strictly'’ check the progress twice a year, government officials said. In a reviewed plan on measures to achieve the Kyoto target, which Japan is expected to fall short of under existing measures, the government said creating an emissions trading program in the country and imposing environment taxes should ‘’be comprehensively considered.'’ At Friday’s meeting of the Global Warming Prevention Headquarters, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said it is ‘’essential to achieve the 6-percent reduction target for Japan to exercise its leadership'’ at July’s Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, the officials said.

(more…)

Filed by Colum Grove-White under Climate Change

29 February 2008
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• Author: Wyndham Hartley and Mathabo Le Roux
• Source: All Africa

Cape Town, Feb 29, 2008 (Business Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — France was not disengaging with Africa but was intensifying its engagement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday in announcing a package of investments for sub-Saharan Africa of more than R100bn over the next five years.

(more…)

Filed by Colum Grove-White under Employment, Development, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Regional Security

28 February 2008
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• Source: Jiji Press English News Service

Tokyo, Feb. 28 (Jiji Press)–Japan has invited leaders of eight countries, including China, India and South Korea, to attend an outreach session on climate change to be held on the fringe of this year’s Group of Eight summit, it was learned Thursday.

Measures to combat global warming will be high on agenda at the G-8 summit, which is scheduled to take place in Toyako, a lakeside resort town in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, in July.

The Japanese government believes that it is necessary to invite emerging countries to the climate change meeting because their greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly increasing in line with strong expansion of their economies, sources familiar with the matter said.

The five other countries being invited to the outreach session are Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, the sources said.

The 16 countries, including the G-8 members of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, also comprise the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, a U.S.-proposed initiative for combating global warming.

The G-8 outreach session will come as the international society is striving to formulate a new framework to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change that is set to expire in 2012.

Such emerging countries as China and India will have important roles in the work to establish the new international framework since no numerical targets for greenhouse gas emission cuts have been set those countries under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Japanese government also plans to hold another outreach session on the sidelines of the G-8 summit for discussions on African development, the sources said.

Tokyo plans to invite seven or eight countries to the meeting, including Tanzania, the current chair of the African Union, and Ethiopia, which chairs the AU-led New Partnership for Africa’s Development, or NEPAD, the sources said. African development will also be a major agenda item at the G-8 summit.

Filed by Keenan Dixon under Climate Change

28 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Julian Borger, Diplomatic editor
• Source: The Guardian

The US is willing to enter a binding international agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by this summer, if China and India agree to match the commitment, a White House official said yesterday.

James Connaughton, the chairman of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, said the presumption that the US was only interested in setting voluntary emissions targets was “a myth”.

“We are prepared to join in a binding international agreement, if that agreement includes the major economies including major developing economies,” Connaughton told the Guardian in an interview during a visit to London.

He argued that the US was actually ahead of Europe in setting mandatory goals for sectors such as fuel economy, lighting efficiency and renewable fuel technology, and would consider a binding target for the US economy as a whole.

“It is highly likely we will establish an economy-wide goal. But we are not dogmatic here. If China and India want to do a series of goals that cover most of our emissions, that’s acceptable,” he said.

He said work on agreeing on a common target would take place at a meeting in Paris in April of representatives of the world’s 17 biggest economies. The agreement would then be formalised around this July’s G8 meeting in Japan.

European officials said Connaughton’s announcement was an important shift in language from Washington, but insisted that the industrialised world should take the lead in tackling global warming.

Filed by Keenan Dixon under Climate Change

28 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: UNI (United News of India)

Kolkata, Feb. 28 — French ambassador in India Jerome Bonnafont today said India should be made a permanent member in the UN Security Council and advocated for expansion of G-8 to accomodate India and other developing countries like China and Brazil to make it meaningful existence.

Supporting India’s quest for civilian nuclear facility for energy sector, Mr Bonnafont said France would continue to support India for producing clean energy. (more…)

Filed by Keenan Dixon under United Nations Reform

28 February 2008
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• Source: ITAR-TASS World Service

TOKYO, February 28 (Itar-Tass) — The government of Japan, which holds presidency in the Group of Eight (G-8), arranges for a conference of the leaders of 16 countries, which are reckoned the main polluters of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, to discuss global warming during the forthcoming G-8 summit in July.

The newspaper Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Thursday that, along with G-8 members, the leaders of Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, Mexico, South Africa, and South Korea would participate in the conference. (more…)

Filed by Keenan Dixon under The Environment, Climate Change

28 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Voice of America Press Releases and Documents

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced a new chapter of diplomatic, economic, and military relations with Africa. On a visit to South Africa, Mr. Sarkozy said France will renegotiate all military accords with African countries. For VOA, Terry FitzPatrick reports from Cape Town. (more…)

Filed by Keenan Dixon under Regional Security

27 February 2008
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• Source: G8 Research Group News Service

TORONTO, Ontario – In a report released today by the G8 Research Group, the government of Canada received its lowest score on compliance with G8 commitments since the inception of the report. (more…)

Filed by Cliff Vanderlinden under Other

26 February 2008
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• Source: The Globe and Mail , pg A22

KAMPALA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper set foot on African soil for the first time ever yesterday under pressure to reassert Canada’s commitment to helping the still-struggling continent emerge from poverty and underdevelopment.

Beyond the glitz of the three-day meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in the Ugandan capital, Uganda remains one of the world’s poorest nations, a country whose gross domestic product is still a meagre $245 (U.S.) per capita and which ranks a dismal 145th among 177 nations in the UN Human Development Index. (more…)

Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under Development

26 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Text of news conference by Prime Minister Fukuda in Singapore on 21 November 2007 following his visits to the United States and Singapore, released in English by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on 22 November; subheadings inserted editorially

MODERATOR: We will now start the press conference for the Prime Minister of Japan Mr Yasuo Fukuda. First, Prime Minister Fukuda will give some opening remarks. (more…)

Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under Other

26 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Prospect Magazine

Recent discussion on nuclear weapons policy in Britain has been dominated by two debates. The first, centred on Iran and North Korea, has focused on how best to prevent these states from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. The second, centred on the decision to renew Trident, has been a replay of old and familiar arguments from the 1980s between believers in nuclear deterrence on one hand and advocates of unilateral disarmament on the other. These debates have combined to obscure an important third development: a paradigm shift in thinking about nuclear weapons policy among some of the world’s leading nuclear strategists, a shift rich in potential to put multilateral, not unilateral, nuclear disarmament back on the agenda. (more…)

Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

26 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Associated Press

PARIS (AP)–French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday suggested that China and other emerging powers be invited to attend the 2008 G-8 Summit in Japan.

“I don’t see how one can decide the various balances of the world without China and without India,” Sarkozy told a group of French and Japanese business leaders, according to a text made public. “I don’t see how one can say to the Chinese that we don’t accept your attitude without inviting them to the table.” (more…)

Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under Other

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: G8 Research Group News Service

TORONTO, Ontario – In an unusual turn of events, students will be the ones doling out report cards this week at the University of Toronto.

The G8 Research Group, which comprises more than 150 undergraduate and graduate student analysts, will release a major report this week detailing and evaluating the progress of each of the Group of Eight industrial nations towards fulfilling the commitments made at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany in June 2007. (more…)

Filed by Cliff Vanderlinden under Other

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Xinhua Business Weekly

China called on the international community to observe the principles and framework set by the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The appeal was made by Cao Bochun, vice director of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress, at the G8+5 Climate Change Dialogue forum held in this Brazilian capital.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

A majority of G7 citizens regard President Putin as a “negative influence on democracy and human rights in Russia”, according to a BBC World Service poll.
Fifty-six per cent of respondents from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA (the G7 nations) believe he has been a negative influence on democracy and human rights in Russia, while 26 per cent regard his role as positive in this area.
Forty-seven per cent of G7 citizens, according to the poll, are also negative about Putin’s influence “on peace and security in the world” with 38 per cent regarding him positively on the issue.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Democratization and Human Rights

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: M2 Presswire

The UK and Norway will join forces once again under the Global Threat Reduction Programme to ensure another aging Russian nuclear submarine is successfully dismantled, Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks announced today.
The UK and Norway will share the GBP3.9 million cost to dismantle the decommissioned November Class submarine No291, which will be de-fuelled and then towed to Nerpa Shipyard for dismantling. Once dismantled to a single compartment unit (containing the de-fuelled reactor) the submarine will be transferred to Saida Bay for land-based interim storage. Project management and technical advice for the UK Government will be provided by NUKEM Ltd.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kyodo News

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and new South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Monday to rebuild future-oriented ties by resuming reciprocal visits by their top leaders this year, seeking to restart free trade talks, cooperating on the North Korean nuclear and abduction issues, and working together in other areas.
Also highlighting a new course in bilateral ties in their first meeting, the two leaders did not have in-depth exchanges on such thorny issues as historical and territorial rows. But it remains to be seen how they can manage the disputes from rekindling to undermine relations.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Multilateral Trade

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Dow Jones International News

E.U. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas traveled Monday to the U.S. for talks on a possible binding international agreement on reducing greenhouse gases, his spokeswoman said.
The news came after a senior White House official announced in Paris that the U.S. is ready to accept “binding international obligations” to cut emissions of the gases blamed for global warming.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Huw Jones and Marcin Grajewski
• Source: Reuters News

Credit rating agencies must voluntarily show they can avoid conflicts of interest or face new mandatory rules, according to a document that the European Commission is due to adopt on Wednesday.
“If these agencies prove unable or unwilling to act to address their weaknesses, then the EU and others will come forward with regulatory measures,” said the document, obtained by Reuters.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Financial Supervision, Corporate and Public Governance, Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy

25 February 2008
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• Author: David Milliken
• Source: Reuters News

Dynamic growth in East Asia may support the world economy amid the current risk of a slowdown in some industrialised countries, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday.
The world must also draw the right lessons from the ongoing correction in financial markets and ensure that growing Asian economies are involved — and take more responsibilities — in international economic forums, he said.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Other, Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Market News International

Chinese and European Union trade officials aim to launch the “High Level Economic and Trade Mechanism” talks in April this year, according to a statement by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson released here Monday following a weekend of talks with Chinese officials.

The EU-China mechanism is analogous to the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the United States and China.

(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy, Multilateral Trade

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Charles J. Hanley
• Source: Associated Press Newswires

The U.N. climate chief on Monday welcomed statements by Bush administration officials that the United States would accept a binding international commitment to reduce global-warming gases. But he said their insistence that China and other developing nations do the same “is not realistic.”
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change

25 February 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Timothy Gardner
• Source: Reuters News

The world’s rich countries should set a goal of cutting planet-warming gases by 2020, not by 2050 as some have suggested, so businesses can get a clearer signal on actions they need to take to fight global warming, the U.N.’s top climate change official said on Monday.
In U.N. climate talks in Bali late last year, Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations as part of a roadmap to work out a new global pact to fight climate change. The new pact would take effect in 2009, replacing the Kyoto Protocol.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change