Tearfund’s Advocacy Director, Andy Atkins, is in Heilegendamm, Germany, this week to lobby officials on important issue like climate change. He's sending back a daily blog direct from Germany. Read them here.
Friday 8 June
Andy takes part in a press conference on climate change
I hear that the beach 20 yards from the media centre here at Kuhlungsborn is beautiful.... Apparently, the clear Baltic sea roars up to the white sand. Herring gulls walk up and down. Large blue and white chairs enable you to look out over the scenery in comfort.
But so far, I’ve not stepped out onto the sand. Even the protestors, who tried to dig their way under the perimeter fence that surrounds the media centre on three sides on Tuesday night – have got further than I have.
We may be in a scenic location, but the focus of these talks, and of our activity as a Tearfund team, is on climate change, aid, trade, debt and HIV and AIDS and how these will affect those in the developing world.
Climate change announcement
We were relieved at yesterday’s announcement on climate change, particularly because it commits the G8 nations to pursue this subject under the auspices of the UN and conclude their talks by 2009.
That’s not long in international terms and means that all the players – including the US – are bound to take part. That EU nations, plus Japan and Canada, backed global cuts in emissions of at least 50 per cent by 2050, felt like progress.
It’s important that the G8 has noted that climate change is already affecting people in the developing world. But it is disappointing that they have not yet made any concrete new commitments to help developing countries adapt to the ravages of climate change. Read our response to the announcement here.
But today, the G8’s focus turns to HIV and AIDS, aid, trade and debt. A communiqué is expected at 3pm. Like yesterday though, it’s possible that other information will leak out earlier, particularly on HIV and AIDS.
Life and death decisions
Yesterday, it appeared that the G8 looked likely to renege on its 2005 agreements to provide universal access to anti-retroviral drugs to everyone who needed them. It looks possible that they may cut this to an aim for provision for just 5 million people.
This is criminal. We know that the money that has been released for HIV and AIDS has saved and transformed lives. Putting money into the provision of anti-retroviral drugs is so obvious and so logical that it has to be done.
Today, international leaders from Africa and other developing nations have arrived at the G8. It will be very interesting to see their response to yesterday’s climate change announcement as well as the pending announcement on HIV. A photo opportunity took place this morning outside the hotel at Heilegendamm where the talks are being held.
The sun shone, the sea was blue, you could even see the white sand. Everything looked well with the world. But the scenery is misleading. It’s hard to believe that the G8 leaders’ decisions will mean the difference between life or death for millions.
Please pray that the interests of poor communities will be at the top of the agenda today and that bold decisions will be made.
Thursday 7 June
Today, the temperature at Heilegendamm hit 28C. Tomorrow it’s going to be 30C. Near the beach, shops are selling buckets and spades and we’ve all been issued with a special G8 beach bag containing a towel and a Frisbee in case the urge to head for the sea overwhelms us.
Two degrees
So, it was an apt time to talk about what happens if there is a 2C rise in global temperatures. A recent Tearfund report showed that a 2C increase in global temperatures could lead to more than 1 billion people facing water shortages and more than 250 million people facing food shortages.
The 2C increase is the topic of the day here at the G8. We know that the sherpas - the negotiators from each country - worked through the night on this. They’re really taking this seriously and it’s obvious that the discussions are even more intense than they were at Gleneagles two years ago. But this morning an agreement was still some way away.
US isolated
Chancellor Merkel is pushing for a 50 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 and a commitment to ensure that a 2C global temperature rise is avoided. America looks like being the one nation in the room saying ‘no’ to such a deal. It’s isolated.
So this morning, as the sun sparkled on the Baltic Sea, protestors took to the waves in inflatable boats carrying banners saying ‘Act Now G8’.
Two helicopters circled overhead and it gave some of the 16,000 police something else to do other than contain protestors on land. It gave many of the photographers and cameramen something else to do too, while they waited around for the world’s leaders to discuss climate change, which they are set to do this afternoon.
Working together
It was against this backdrop that Climate Action Network – of which Tearfund is a member – held a press conference on the beach to call for firm commitments. I spoke about how a 2C rise in temperature would affect people in developing countries.
The BBC’s Nick Robinson was spotted eating an ice cream, and the Germans teased me about my time keeping, it was all very amicable. It’s exciting to see environment and development charities working together in a new way.
It’s the world’s poorest people who need this deal the most. Climate change is already affecting them. That's why we – along with 50 other NGOs – have written to Chancellor Merkel calling on her to ensure that global average temperature increases are kept as far below 2C as possible.
Tomorrow, as the world's leaders turn their attention to Africa, aid and AIDS, we’ll know how much the world has changed.
Wednesday 6 June
Andy does an phone interview with UCB radio from the press centre
Our little Tearfund team began the day with prayers over breakfast in our small hotel and then we set off for the G8 media centre, where we are based during the day.
The journey should have been easy, but the G8 leaders arrived at the summit today and anti-capitalist protestors were out in force to ‘welcome’ them.
Road trip
As a result it took us more than two hours to get here with the assistance of an enterprising taxi driver who drove us through small villages, across fields and down farm tracks to get around the protestors who had blocked the road and railways!
There were some bizarre sights. Protestors emerged from hedges and were met by huge convoys of riot police who charged out from their hiding places in the forest to intercept them.
Prayer required
I’ve just been interviewed by the Christian radio station, UCB radio, to share with their listeners the sorts of things they can be praying for during this conference. It’s important that whilst the protestors get a chance to exercise their democratic rights, the attention shifts to the real agenda – the crucial decisions being made by the G8 leaders on climate change, aid, trade and AIDS.
Pray for the leaders to have the moral courage to take bold decisions on climate change and to speed up the delivery of promises they made back in 2005 at the last G8: to tackle AIDS, cancel debt and dramatically increase aid.
Under pressure
Charlotte from our media team has been busy making contacts with the UK press. Most national newspapers have sent reporters and the BBC is here en masse. We’re hoping to do some media interviews over the next few days to keep up the pressure on G8 leaders - particularly on climate change.
We’re briefing the press on our new report, Two Degrees, One Chance, on climate change. It explains why it’s so vital that agreement is reached to keep temperature rises as far below 2 degrees as possible. This will prevent more than a billion people around the world from facing water shortages and more than 250 million people facing food shortages.
What we hope for
Right now we feel in limbo between the big policy changes we’d love to see and the knowledge that these summits rarely deliver the half of what we want.
However, having been in this game a few years now, I firmly believe that without public campaigning and world media attention focused on the G8, world leaders would move even more slowly. I’ll update you tomorrow…
Please pray that the media will switch from covering the demonstrations to focusing on how the G8 decisions will affect the poor. And pray that vital agreement is reached to keep global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees.
Tuesday 5 
Andy addresses the crowds in Edinburgh before the G8 summit in 2005
At the G8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005, the world’s most powerful leaders made promises on aid, trade, debt and AIDS. Promises that so far, they haven’t met.
The G8 leaders committed to a doubling of aid to $50bn (£25bn) by 2010. To date, they are nowhere near that target. If they continue at their current rate they will be a staggering £15bn short.
One the eve of this year’s G8 there is a real need for the world’s leaders to show leadership and push for those promises to be met in full. The best result would be that over the next three days, the G8 gets back on track to meet these promises.
So, at Tearfund, we’re using the opportunity afforded by the Heilegendamm G8 to remind governments of their commitments and ensure that they stick to them.
Climate change and trade are the two areas where we urgently need to see development. Over the last few days, both America and China have issued statements on climate change that could deter the G8. But there is a growing understanding that there is a difference between the US and the Bush administration – which has been the main hindrance to seeing firm commitments met and made on climate change. The latter has only 18 months left to run.
Europe’s leaders have recently shown that they want to make progress on this key issue. So, one possibility from this year’s G8 is a watered-down statement on climate change, but a separate one from Germany and observer countries including Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, China and India, which ironically may go further.
The importance of this cannot be underestimated. If we don’t act now to reduce carbon emissions, we will inevitably hit a 2C global temperature rise. That may not sound like much, the difference perhaps between a mild day and a hot one. But in global terms a 2C rise will have a catastrophic effect, leaving up to four billion people at risk of water shortages. Millions more will become homeless as the land on which they live becomes uncultivable. Meeting targets on this is unbelievably pressing.
Trade is equally intractable. In 2005 the G8 leaders agreed to allow developing nations to determine the pace at which they open up their markets. This is critical to see countries grow and become self-sustaining. The real trade negotiations will not be done here at the G8, but at the next round of the Doha talks later this month. Unless those talks work, there’s no chance of getting it the US Congress ratifying this in its entirety.
As Christians, we have a responsibility and a privilege to be able to pray about these issues. We can and we should be praying this week.
Please pray that there will be agreement between powerful nations and a renewed commitment to the promises made in 2005. And pray for real breakthroughs on climate change.