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Jitters Before the Summit

Merkel Dampens Hope for Climate Progress at G-8

Months ago, Merkel made climate change a priority of her G-8 presidency. Now, though, it looks like an agreement may not be possible, though British Prime Minister Tony Blair remains optimistic.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was downbeat on Thursday about the prospect of a breakthrough on climate change at the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm -- while British Prime Minister Tony Blair, almost simultaneously, was upbeat.

In a pre-summit speech to German parliament on Thursday, Merkel called for comprehensive agreement on climate protection among the Group of Eight -- leaders the top seven industrial nations plus Russia -- when they sit down to talk at the German-hosted summit on June 6-8. But she admitted that President George W. Bush might not be persuaded to match Europe's ambitious climate-change agenda. "I can say quite openly that, today, I don't know whether we will succeed in that at Heiligendamm," she said.

Tony Blair, on the other hand, told BBC TV on Thursday, "I think it is possible that we will see action -- and at least the beginnings of that action at the G-8. I hope so. That's what I'm arguing for."

He said it was encouraging that the United States had joined recent G-8 sideline talks on carbon emissions with China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. "For the first time," he said, "at least the Americans are in this G-8 plus 5 process."

But the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported seeing a draft of a formal G-8 conclusion on climate change, which is still being haggled over by representatives of the various nations, with key paragraphs on climate protection set in parentheses. What Europe considers firm goals for efficient energy use in the 21st century have been challenged by the United States -- and anything still challenged, or in parentheses, when the talks start will be left out of the final statement.

Also on Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came out firmly in favor of European goals to cut world greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. These goals belong to a new set of guidelines to replace the Kyoto Protocol to be discussed by UN members in Bali this December. Kyoto expires in 2012, and the pressure to replace it, in bureaucratic circles, is mounting.

"The Kyoto Protocol was the first, concrete step for the human race to tackle global warming, but we must admit that it has limitations," said Abe, according to Bloomberg. Abe takes over the G-8 presidency from Merkel next year.

Meanwhile, in the simmering controversy over German security methods ahead of the summit in Heiligendamm, Germany's DieTageszeitung reported that police in Hamburg were opening letters at a postal center in Hamburg to keep tabs on anti-globalization organizers. About a dozen members of the Landeskriminalamt, a state-level law enforcement agency, worked in a special room to sort suspicious mail under orders from the Bundeskriminalamt, a federal agency, reported the paper.

The scope of the police operation wasn't clear, but both the dpa news agency and Die Tageszeitung reported that Ralf Meyer, spokesman for the Hamburg police, refused to confirm or deny the story.

msm/ap/taz/dpa