Blair ‘not distracted’ from G8 summit
Tony Blair has insisted he will not be distracted by the cash for honours row when he heads to Russia this weekend for the G8 summit.
The prime minister said the events going on in the Middle East, the stand-off with Iran, poverty in Africa and questions of energy would be the main focus of the meeting.
“I think you’ll find that’s what people really want to talk about,” he told reporters this lunchtime, following a meeting with Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.
Energy is high on the agenda at the St Petersburg summit, which begins on Sunday, and the heads of the eight leading developed countries will discuss the liberalisation of the market, as well as practical ways to improve energy efficiency and tackle climate change.
These subjects formed part of this morning’s discussions between Mr Blair and Mr Harper, but the issue is a sensitive one following the Canadian premier’s pledge on coming to office earlier this year to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol.
This committed the country to cut carbon emissions by six per cent on 1990 levels by 2008-12, but Mr Harper said this was impossible as emissions are currently 35 per cent above 1990 levels. This is mainly due to the opening up of new oil fields in Canada.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr Blair said he did not intend to start “pointing fingers” about who would meet their Kyoto targets and said the issue was to get consensus on fighting a “common problem”.
“We are able to meet our Kyoto targets without problems for our economy, but other countries are in more difficulty.Canada is part of a common endeavour, and the most important thing now is to establish a post-Kyoto framework,” he said.
Mr Harper added: “We don’t differ on the philosophy of climate change – the differences are the facts the two countries are confronted with. The targets are not obtainable, but that doesn’t mean we are abandoning the process.”
Elsewhere on the G8 agenda is the issue of the stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. Any discussions would be informal because Russia is not a WTO member, but Mr Blair’s spokesman said it was about “getting a momentum going in the right direction”.
The prime minister is also expected to lead a discussion on Africa, and time has been set aside to review the progress since last year’s G8 summit at Gleneagles, when the world’s richest countries made a series of pledges to combat poverty.
“It is about checking progress and it is also about renewing our commitments in Africa, and maintaining momentum through Germany and Japan’s G8 summits,” the spokesman said.
“We wanted the G8 to be on track for delivering Gleneagles package for Africa, including the millennium development goals by 2015 and the doubling of aid by 2010.”
In addition, there will be discussions about Russia itself, including the government’s attitude to democracy and human rights, while the prime minister’s spokesman said Mr Blair would be raising the issue of possible expansion of the G8.
“It is a reality now that the G8 does not make sense unless it is inclusive of the G5, and unless it reached out to groups such as the African leaders,” he said.
