By: CECÍLIA PIRES
UNITED STATES Ambassador to Portugal, Alfred Hoffman Jr., was in the Algarve to talk about this year’s G8 Summit, held in Germany from June 6 to 8, and to discuss issues such as climate change and economic, social and development aid.
The news is that the United Nations is going to make sure countries respect the agreements reached at the Summit regarding climate protection.
The eight most industrialised countries in the world – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – discussed a new proposal to overcome the constraints of the Kyoto Protocol, during the Summit meetings held in Heiligendamm, Germany’s oldest seaside resort.
Alfred Hoffman Jr. was the main speaker at a seminar held at the Universidade do Algarve to mark World Environment Day (June 5). His speech focused exclusively on the climate change issue, following instructions from the White House, which asked all its diplomatic representatives around the world to focus any public presentations on that subject.
Wrong image
The US Ambassador regretted the fact that European countries still have a “wrong image” about the efforts being made by the United States to reduce the impact of industrial pollution around the globe. “In fact, in 2006, while our (US) economy grew 3.2 per cent, our carbon dioxide emissions actually declined 1.2 per cent. But most of the European countries were unable to achieve these results,” he said.
The US’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol was also explained by the United States diplomat: “We could not sign that treaty because India and China were not included in it and because a reduction of 35 per cent in our carbon dioxide emissions was impossible to achieve in our economy.”
New document
However, the US’s position might change with the involvement of the United Nations, as stated in the Heiligendamm Process, the main document that came out of the G8 Summit.
The document includes “wide-ranging agreements on all key issues on the agenda: from climate protection to Africa Policy” and
 “We cannot get along without each other,” concluded the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, at the end of the two-day Summit. Photo: SUPPLIED |  |
involves the G8 group as well as the five major emerging economies, China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, known as the O5 group.
At the end of the two days, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, concluded: “We cannot get along without each other.”
With this, she meant that the leading industrialised nations cannot meet any of the challenges they are faced with on their own. Therefore, the two groups of countries agreed to co-operate more closely and on a more continuous basis under the umbrella of the United Nations for environmental issues.
To know more about G8 and the G8 Summit click on the web link on the right.
Do you have a view on this story? Email: editor@portugalresident.com
