• Source: The Saigon Times Daily

The Group of Eight wealthy nations are looking at investing more than US$10 billion a year to support new technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, including carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), a Japanese daily reported yesterday. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under The Environment, Climate Change

• Author: Hugh Williamson
• Source: Financial Times

Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations are set to backtrack on their landmark pledge at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to increase development aid to Africa to $25bn a year. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Education and Social Policy, Development

• Author: Jo Steele
• Source: Metro, 2008 Associated Newspapers

Spiraling oil prices should not distract G8 leaders from efforts to draw up a global deal on climate change, a think-tank has urged. Knee-jerk bids to tackle the price rises, by moving to new carbon -intensive sources of oil and coal-toliquid technology, could increase emissions, Climate Strategies said. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Global Financial Crises, Climate Change

• Author: Onyebuchi Ezigbo
• Source: This Day (Nigeria)

Nigeria’s nuclear programme is causing concern among the world’s Group of Eight (G8) nations, THISDAY has learnt. The G8 - comprising world’s most industrialised democracies, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Japan, Russia, Italy, France, Germany and Canada - is worried about Nigeria’s ability to handle the safety and security obligations associated with use of nuclear technology. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD, Conflict Prevention and Human Security

• Source: ENP Newswire

Any successful program of action on climate change must support two objectives-stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) and maintaining economic growth. Reconciling these two objectives means that ‘carbon productivity,’ the amount of GDP produced per ton of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions must increase by ten times over the coming decades. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Macroeconomic Policy, Development, Climate Change

• Source: Kyodo News

TOKYO, June 30 — Japan on Monday sought cooperation from the United Nations in creating an effective framework to combat climate change with the participation of all major greenhouse gas emitters, while vowing to work at the Group of Eight summit, which Japan will host next week, to send a ‘’robust'’ message on tackling soaring food prices. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Climate Change, Conflict Prevention and Human Security

• Author: Catherine Makino
• Source: NoticiasFinancieras

The G8 Summit is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each year the hosting of the G8 alternates among the member states. This year’s chair is Japan’s Prime Minister Yauso Fukuda, who will set the agenda and determine which ministerial meetings will take place. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Other

• Source: PR Newswire Europe

Hokkaido Broadcasting Company (”HBC”) launched its English website to provide G8 Summit related news videos and archives that have been produced since spring 2007 when the town of Toyako was elected as the official venue. Currently, the site contains over 70 news videos with English subtitles. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Other

• Author: Farid Abolfathi
• Source: Global Insight Daily Analysis

At the end of their two-day meeting in Kyoto (Japan), the Foreign Ministers of the G8 group of major powers (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) issued a statement on 27 June, voicing support for the Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations and urging all parties in the Middle East to avoid action harmful to peace negotiation. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Regional Security, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

• Author: Edwina Gibbs
• Source: Reuters News

Journalists, academics and activists said on Monday they had been detained and questioned at airports in Japan, sometimes for more than 10 hours, in a sign of growing security jitters ahead of next week’s G8 summit. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Other

• Source: Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies

The heads of the eight leading countries of the planet, who are to meet on Hokkaido from July 7-9, will call for broader uses of atomic energy to arrest global climate warming. (more…)

Filed by Vanmala Subramaniam under Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD, Conflict Prevention and Human Security

• Source: Agence France Presse

The Group-of-Eight industrialised nations will jointly invest more than 10 billion dollars a year on research and development of technology to combat global warming, a report said Sunday.

The plan, including research on underground storage of carbon dioxides, is included in a draft joint statement on economic policy to be adopted at the G8 summit scheduled for July 7-9 in Japan, the business daily Nikkei said.

Climate change will dominate the summit which will bring together leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States to the northern Japan lakeside resort of Toyako. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Climate Change

• Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News

Addressing climate change head-on is in China’s best interests, but it needs developed countries to do their fair share, President Hu Jintao said in a speech reported by the Xinhua news agency.

Mr Hu called on developed countries to step up efforts on emission reduction, and provide financial and technical support for developing countries. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Climate Change

• Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Text of report in English by Japan’s largest news agency Kyodo.

Kyoto, June 29 Kyodo - Visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Sunday called on Japan to set a “far-reaching” medium-term target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to take a leading role in the international community in the fight against global warming. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Climate Change

• Source: The Sunday Times

South Africa remains loyal to Mugabe but criticism from other states is growing, reports RW Johnson from Cape Town.

WHEN Nelson Mandela broke his silence last week, speaking of a “tragic failure of leadership” in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe shrugged it off, saying the former South African president was merely “bowing to western pressure”.

But Mandela’s successor, President Thabo Mbeki, said nothing. For Mbeki has been Mugabe’s chief supporter - and now finds himself under increasing pressure. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Other

• Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Text of report by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

[”Xinhua International Commentary” by staff reporter Lin Xiaochun: “Do Not Shirk Responsibility”]

Climate change is the topic that parliamentarians and political dignitaries from a number of countries will be discussing in Tokyo on 29 June. It is also on the agenda of the upcoming G8 summit. But just before these discussions are about to take place, agencies of some developed countries have dished out reports that put an unbalanced spin on China’s “high carbon emissions.” These reports make an issue of China regarding climate change in a big way. They use their own “numbers” to obscure the basic facts of China and mix up total emissions with such important factors as per-capita emissions. In effect, they ignore the tremendous efforts that China has been making and shirk the developed countries’ bounden duty. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Climate Change

• Source: Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the presidential run-off elections in Zimbabwe as a farce and called on the African Union to draw the necessary consequences, in remarks published Sunday.

“The recent elections in Zimbabwe were a farce,” Merkel told the Monday edition of the national German daily, Die Welt, adding that she would press for more stringent European Union sanctions on the regime of President Robert Mugabe, the reported. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Other

• Source: Xinhua News Agency

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) — Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here on Sunday, both vowing to continuously promote constructive bilateral relationship in the future.

The China-U.S. relations, with many ups and downs, have generally maintained its momentum of progress since the two established diplomatic ties in 1979, Yang said. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Multilateral Trade

• Author: Lisa Wright
• Source: Toronto Star

Robin Rotenberg is not exactly thrilled that her customers have to pay more these days to make the products that everyone takes for granted, from cosmetics to plastic cups and cookware.

The skyrocketing price of oil translates into added costs to manufacture and transport everyday goods, which you’ve probably noticed are being dumped on you, the consumer, lately.

“It’s driven up our raw materials prices and that isn’t helpful to us,” says Rotenberg, president of Mississauga chemical conglomerate BASF Canada. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Macroeconomic Policy

• Author: William L. Watts
• Source: MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Once again, it’s open season on speculators.

The popular tale holds that with the rise of long-only commodity index funds and increased interest in commodities from pension funds and other players, speculators must be to blame for surging oil prices and have probably been the prime culprit in the steep rice in prices for food and other commodities as well. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Macroeconomic Policy

• Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Report from Indo-Asian News Service brought to you by HT Syndication.

New Delhi, June 29 — India is gearing up for a possible September deadline to push through its much debated civilian nuclear deal with the United States.

“It is tough, but it may just be doable,” a top South Block source told IANS Sunday. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Energy and Nuclear Safety

• Source: AFX UK Focus

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - The Group of Eight industrialized nations will jointly invest more than $10 billion a year on research and development of technology to combat climate change, such as storing carbon dioxide underground, the Nikkei newspaper reported at the weekend without citing sources.

The plan is included in an outline of a draft joint statement on economic policy to be adopted at the G-8 summit scheduled for July 7-9 at Hokkaido’s Toyako resort. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Climate Change

• Author: Yoko Kubota
• Source: Reuters News

TOKYO, June 29 (Reuters) - Anti-G8 summit protesters danced to blaring music and marched down the streets of Tokyo in heavy rain on Sunday, accusing the Group of Eight rich nations of causing poverty and world instability.

The protests, which have become a fixture at Group of Eight summits, came as Japan tightened security ahead of this year’s July 7-9 gathering in Hokkaido, northern Japan. (more…)

Filed by Aleksandra Susak under Other

• Source: Deutsche Welle

The final round of Zimbabwe’s presidential election with only one candidate was “a farce,” German Foreign Minister Steinmeier said Saturday, June 28. The US says it will introduce a UN resolution next week.

“A run-off election without an opponent is a farce and incapable of providing legitimacy,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin, a day after voters in the southern African country went to the polls. (more…)

Filed by Marina Garbutt under Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

• Source: Jiji Press English News Service

Tokyo, June 28 (Jiji Press)–U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, now in Japan on the first leg of his three-nation Asian tour, on Saturday urged the country to take a strong leadership at the Group of Eight summit to be held in the lakeside resort of Toyako in Hokkaido, northern Japan, on July 7-9.

Japan’s leadership has never been so important than now, Ban told reporters aboard a Shinkansen train. The U.N. chief, who arrived in Tokyo early Saturday afternoon, was traveling to the western Japan city of Kyoto. (more…)

Filed by Marina Garbutt under The Environment, Climate Change