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G8: 2005 Summit

My Lords, I should like first to apologise to the House and to the noble Lord, Lord   Dholakia, if the Statement was not available. I understand that the policy is that the Statement is not made available until the person giving it has actually sat down. It may be that we started slightly too early. My apologies for that. The noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, called the conclusions of this G8 Summit ““modest””. I really cannot agree. The conclusions of this G8 Summit on Africa are unprecedented. Only a few weeks ago, with the Prime Minister having set the bar so high, some said that we would fail to achieve the doubling of aid for which we were looking. We have achieved a doubling of aid to Africa. Until now, the debt relief initiative has been focused on the debts owed to other countries. This goes much further than that, dealing with the debt owed to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank. It is a major step forward and it is important that the House recognise that. I watched the Prime Minister’s statement at the press conference post the summit. He made it clear that, on climate change and on trade, he would have liked the summit to go further. He was absolutely clear about that. But he was also realistic about what could be achieved with the eight leaders around the table. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, that there is a plan of action on climate change that covers measures to transform the way in which we use energy, including driving down transport emissions, cutting emissions in energy-intensive sectors, and cleaner appliances; measures to promote cleaner power generation, including cleaner fossil fuels and a new bio-energy partnership; measures to promote cooperation in research and development between the G8 and major emerging economies, including research networks; and measures to finance the transition to cleaner energy as well as measures to manage the impact of climate change and measures on illegal logging. It is a comprehensive action plan. This was never intended to be a summit where targets were renegotiated or new targets put in place. On trade, noble Lords will know from all the discussions we have had in this House that the UK would like to see much faster progress on ending subsidies not only within the European Union but in the world’s other rich countries. In fact, the Labour Party made a commitment in its manifesto to working for an end date of 2010. The Prime Minister, as a result of the discussions at Gleneagles, hopes that that will be the credible end date agreed at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting in December. On Zimbabwe, we are of course waiting for the report from the UN envoy which will be made to the UN Security Council. The one thing on which I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, regarding Zimbabwe was his comment that Africa must assist in finding the solution. That has always been my position across this Dispatch Box; it has clearly taken him a long time to agree, but I am delighted that he has finally agreed. I also agree with the noble Lord that African countries need able leadership. Although I recognise the major challenges and difficulties facing the continent, I for one have been pleased to see the progress in many countries over the past few years. Recent examples of the fight against corruption include Nigeria and Rwanda. There has been a shift to increasing stability and democracy in many countries. The noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, is right that the agreements made at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles will be judged by the outcomes and implementation. That is why there was so much stress on implementation. I was asked about the proportion of new money. We set out to seek a doubling in the aid to developing countries, with half of that going to Africa. We have achieved a doubling of that aid, with a commitment to half of it going to Africa. The proportion of that that will be new will depend on the starting point of each country that has made the commitment. I entirely agree with the noble Lord that we have a long way to go on trade, but it is also important that we remember that the European Union, in terms of market access, has the ““Everything But Arms”” initiative. It means that the least developed countries have access to the European Union market on everything but arms.