Blair Wants G8 to Expand to G13 As British Warn of Risk to Africa From Climate Change

Britain’s Department for International Development, or DfID, will warn today that climate change could wipe out any benefits from measures to help Africa agreed by the G8 at Gleneagles last year.

DfID’s first White Paper for five years, says: ” What is clear is that Africa appears to have some of the greatest burdens of climate change impacts, certainly from the human health and agricultural perspective”. Southern Africa and the Sahel, the Great Lakes areas and the coastal zones of eastern and western Africa are said to be particularly at risk.

The British Government will also announce plans to make China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico fully-fledged members of the G8 to become, in effect, the G13, in a bid to kick-start what many are calling Kyoto 2.

“ There is no way we can deal with climate change unless we get an agreement that binds in the US, China and India,” says Blair. “We have got to get an agreement with a binding framework – of that I am in no doubt at all. There is no point in thinking Congress is going to enter a binding commitment to change the structure of the US economy without China and India being part of the deal.”

Jacques Chirac, the French President, has also criticised the US for blocking progress on climate change. He said: “Global threats require global responses. We shall not solve the problem of global warming if we each go our own way or increase the number of unilateral or partial solutions. This is particularly true for global warming. I am concerned at the weakening of the international regime for climate change. We must reverse this trend.”

He could start by ganging up seven to one at the G8 Summit against Bush, and forcing him to sign up to Kyoto.