Let's Be Realistic, G8!

Whether changing the venue of the G8 meeting from Sardinia to earthquake-ridden L'Aquila was a rather cheap or actually an ingenious move of Mr "Sunshine" Berlusconi will probably be discussed in the various press offices of the attending governments.

Rather than blowing their own trumpet at having achieved a consensus (which is far from being ambitious) and starting to point fingers at the developing nations for not being ready to commit emmission cuts at the expense of their progress, the G8 (and especially the representatives of their countries' media) should focus on a realistic as well as sustainable solution.

Since four of the top five developing nations are ex-colonies isn't it more than understandable that those countries are not ready to slow down the growth of their economies and markets (again)? This time not due to economical, but environmental reasons as well as issues that the developed nations have actually caused.

G5 Leaders Press Conference

"Why should we pay the price for this?" is a question that is frequently asked in the G5 countries. It's much easier for a society of considerable wealth to sacrifice "a piece of the cake" for a greater good. In countries where a large percentage of the population is heavily dependent on the strong growth of the national economy to enjoy even a small portion of prosperity this is much harder to sell.

Climate change, however, is a global phenomenon which transcends national borders, economies and societies and hence requires a global approach and finally consensus - a fact every country has to acknowledge.

What the governments of the developing nations need now is an incentive to join the industrialised countries in the fight against climate change - most likely not so much to get convinced themselves, but rather to set-off the adverse effects on their economies as well as to be able to "market" the merits of this endeavour to their voters. Let's not forget - any government that doesn't do anything against a predictable economical slow-down is not very likely to be re-elected.

Latest at the UN climate summit in Denmark in December we'll know how successful our leaders have been....

Until then we should wish them all the best.

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Memonji