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G8: 2007 Summit

My Lords, I am immensely grateful to the noble Baroness for repeating this Statement. The summit opened, again, with scenes of organised violence and disruption, which is much to be regretted. Again, the active anti-global elements were extremely well organised. As for the main issues under discussion at the summit, significant process on climate change has been claimed. It is interesting that the G8 appeared to look beyond the Kyoto treaty, which until now has been seen as the litmus test for commitment on this front. That must be a stimulus to renewed progress, not stagnation. It is worrying that no firm agreements were reached. However, did the noble Baroness note a reduction in CO2 emissions reported by the United States last year and the positive commitment made by the US Administration at this summit? A positive attitude is to be encouraged. Does she share my belief that this may well have resulted from the relationship between the Prime Minister and President Bush and that the Prime Minister should be congratulated? Clearly, the involvement of India and China is vital, but does she agree that the goal must now be a full successor to the Kyoto treaty, involving not onlythe US but also India and China and other future super-economies, with binding targets and real progress being made at the UN’s December conference in Indonesia? I welcome another aspect of the communiqué; namely, that we must treat causes as well as symptoms and that much more needs to be done to develop energy-efficient technologies. I wonder how much the UK Government are investing here. Furthermore, destruction of the world’s forestsis responsible for a fifth of carbon emissions—even more than transport. Does the noble Baroness therefore share my disappointment that more was not achieved on that? On AIDS and the fight against disease, is the noble Baroness surprised by the somewhat negative reaction to progress in an area where the Prime Minister has striven so hard? Is Oxfam right to estimate that the total annual increase in spending amounts to just$3 billion? If so, and if this is a largely recycled announcement, that might go some way to explain that reaction. Britain has made substantial progress on overseas aid. I congratulate the Prime Minister and the noble Baroness on this. My right honourable friend David Cameron has today reiterated my party’s intention to increase spending on international development to0.7 per cent of GDP by 2013, but can the noble Baroness say what was done at the summit to ensure that all countries deliver what they pledge? There is a fear that, while all countries nod sagely at these summits, too many file the action points in the ““pending”” tray. Darfur is a tragic example. It is one of Africa’s two most pressing humanitarian crises. The G8 statement on Darfur covers important issues, such as an international force and the need for aid toget through. But what is this Government’s action programme to ensure that this really will lead to an end of the paralysis that we have seen so far, whenthe Khartoum Government seem utterly unwilling to co-operate with the international community in putting an end to the killing? Africa’s other humanitarian tragedy is in Zimbabwe. The noble Baroness the Leader of the House will be far more familiar with the voluminous communiqués than I am, but can she explain why, yet again, there is no mention of the atrocious activities of the Mugabe regime in the progress report on the G8-Africa partnership or in the extensive summit declaration of growth and responsibility in Africa? In her speech on 24 May to the Bundestag, Chancellor Merkel had said that Zimbabwe would be dealt with but, in the end, there was nothing. The Prime Minister has two more weeks in office. Later this week, he and Mr Brown will discuss the next EU summit, so will the noble Baroness dictatean urgent minute to those two men saying thatthis House demands an end to the international conspiracy of silence on Zimbabwe? Did the G8 discuss the scandal of one of Mugabe’s henchmen being awarded a major United Nations development post? The noble Baroness’s international credentials are well known but is she not ashamed of the lack of progress in the face of Mugabe’s intransigence? On security, the situation in the Middle East remains chaotic and troubling. I sensed no new initiative emerging from this summit, but no doubt the noble Baroness can enlighten me if there was. Beyond the Middle East, we welcome measures on nuclear security and counter-terrorism and the strong language on Iran. Was Russia’s stance unequivocal on preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb? Did the Prime Minister make any initiative on the question of the planned missile shield, which has caused tension between Russia and her G8 partners? Before the summit there was a lot of grandstanding about tough talk with President Putin. While I agree that some of Russia’s recent actionsare self-defeating and deserve a frank and robust response, does not the history of international relations suggest that public rhetoric followed by practical inaction is usually counter-productive? Can the Minister tell us one concession that Mr Putin made in the face of the Prime Minister’s public finger-wagging? The communiqué showed a sharp division on Kosovo. Where next? Is it the Government’s policy to push for early independence for Kosovo, or what? The next G8 meets next July in Hokkaido under the flight path of North Korean ballistic missiles.Can the noble Baroness say what actions the British Government will be taking before then to help contain the nuclear ambitions of North Korea? This summit was something of a swan-song for the Prime Minister. I am sure that the other G8 leaders will be sad to see him go—maybe they even had a whip-round for him. No one ever span a summit better than this Prime Minister; no one more readily confused rhetoric with achievement; but it would be churlish to let him depart without recognising the Prime Minister’s genuine concern in the fields covered by this summit, of global warming, AIDS and Africa, not least. It would be good to think that the outcomes were always as good as he and the noble Baroness tell us, but if progress was made, then in that the Prime Minister played a commendable part.