FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | G20 leaked doc: leaders plan to water down oil subsidy stance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23rd, 2010
G20 leaked doc: leaders plan to water down oil subsidy stance
A leaked document obtained by ClimateWire suggests that Harper, Obama and other world leaders are poised to water down a commitment to phase out oil and gas
subsidies at the G20 meetings in Toronto this weekend. This comes at the same time that international pressure mounts in light of the BP oil disaster.
The Document text:
Preamble, Context and Decisions – June 11, 2010
In Toronto, we held our first Summit of the G20 in its new capacity as our
premier forum for international economic cooperation. We are committed to
ensuring the G20 remains effective and relevant in this role.
We reviewed our progress in addressing the global economic crisis, and we
agreed on next steps to ensure a full return to growth and jobs, and to create
strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.
Our efforts to date have borne good results. Fiscal and monetary stimulus has
helped restore private demand and lending, and we have taken strong steps
toward increasing the stability of our financial systems. Increased resources
for international financial institutions have helped address the impact of the
crisis on the world’s most vulnerable, and ongoing governance and
management reforms will enhance the effectiveness and relevance of these
institutions. We have successfully maintained our strong commitment to resist
protectionism.
But there is no room for complacency. While growth is returning in many
countries, the recovery is uneven and fragile, and unemployment remains at
unacceptable levels. We recognize the important progress made since our
last meeting in Pittsburgh, but we also agree that much work remains. In
particular, emerging fiscal challenges in many states are creating market
volatility, and could seriously threaten the recovery and weaken prospects for
long-term growth. Further actions are still required to address the underlying
causes of the global financial crisis and promote more responsible and
transparent banking sectors.
Today, in Toronto, we have decided to take the following actions:
[Note: decisions to be determined through the
Declaration process]
We are determined to be accountable for the commitments we have made,
and will instruct our Ministers and officials to take all necessary steps to
implement them fully within agreed timelines.
Fighting Protectionism and Promoting Trade and Investment – June 11,
2010
While the global economic crisis led to the sharpest decline of trade in more
than seventy years, G20 countries chose not to repeat mistakes of the past
and yield to the temptation to close our doors to the global economy. Instead,
we chose open markets and the opportunities they offer. It was the right
choice. Trade volumes are now increasing and are playing a lead role in
driving the recovery. We ensured the availability of over $250 billion in trade
financing, which can be used by importers and exporters to keep trade
flowing. We succeeded in meeting 2010 Aid for Trade targets established in
2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial, and will support continued efforts to
promote capacity building.
We renew for a further three years, until the end of 2013, our commitment to
refrain from raising new barriers to investment or trade in goods and services,
implementing World Trade Organization (WTO)-inconsistent measures to
stimulate exports, or imposing new export restrictions or other barriers.
Where any protectionist measures have been enacted in the context of the
economic crisis, we agree that these should be lifted.
Open markets play a pivotal role in supporting growth and job creation, and in
achieving our goals under the G20 Framework for Strong, Sustainable and
Balanced Growth. In this respect, bringing the WTO Doha Development
Round to a successful conclusion as soon as possible is more important than
ever. We acknowledge the important progress that has been made and the
clear commitment by WTO members in March 2010 in Geneva to conclude
the Round. Each of us is ready to make contributions, and we pledge to
empower fully our negotiators to undertake the give -and-take necessary to
move into endgame negotiations, using all negotiating configurations. We
instruct our Trade Ministers to prepare a full assessment of the state of the
negotiations and a plan of the way forward for our consideration at the Seoul
G20 summit in November of this year.
In the meanwhile, we will continue to seek out other opportunities to liberalize
further trade and investment.
Other Issues and Forward Agenda – June 11, 2010
Corruption threatens the integrity of markets, undermines fair competition,
distorts resource allocation, destroys public trust, and undermines the rule of
law. We welcome the progress made since our last meeting in Pittsburgh to
address corruption, including the work of the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF). We commit to the ratification and full implementation of the United
Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) by our c ountries and
encourage others to do the same. We reiterate the need for further progress
on an UNCAC implementation review mechanism that is effective, transparent
and inclusive. We agree to establish an ad-hoc Working Group of experts to
discuss areas where the G20 could make a useful contribution to anticorruption
efforts, for consideration at our next meeting. Areas of work should
include […..]
We reiterate our commitment to a green recovery and to sustainable global
growth, including through investments in clean energy. We reaffirm our
resolve to address climate change and to continue to engage constructively in
the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change towards a post-2012 climate change regime with the participation of
all major economies. We thank Mexico for undertaking to host the sixteenth
Conference of the Parties (COP 16) in Cancun from November 29 to
December 10, 2010.
We reviewed progress made to date in identifying inefficient fossil fuel
subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption and we agree to continue
working to develop voluntary, member-specific approaches for the
rationalization and phase out of such measures.
We recognize that 2010 marks an important year for development issues. The
September 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) High Level Plenary
Meeting will be crucial in setting the global development agenda and efforts to
achieve the MDGs by 2015. Narrowing the development gap and reducing
poverty are integral to our broader objective of achieving strong, sustainable
and balanced growth and ensuring a more robust and resilient global
economy for all. We agree to establish an ad-hoc Working Group on
Development and mandate it to elaborate action plans for the development
agenda to be adopted d at the Seoul Summit.
We will meet next in Seoul, Korea, on November 11-12, 2010. We will
convene in November 2011 under the Chairmanship of France.
