MEDIA ADVISORY

Friends of the Earth International

G8 BANKS ON MASSIVE GLOBAL CLIMATE POLLUTION

HOKKAIDO, JAPAN, July 8, 2008 -- *Reacting to the statement released today by the G8 in Hokkaido, Friends of the Earth spokesperson Karen Orenstein said:*

"G8 leaders today signaled their support for climate chaos by spewing futile rhetoric that will do nothing to stop the toll that global warming is taking on people and the planet.

By giving support to the World Bank, the world's largest multilateral fossil fuel financier and major deforester, for its ill-conceived and unjust climate funds, G8 leaders have left the fox to guard the hen house.

The climate funds undermine United Nations climate negotiations, promote dirty industries like coal and force developing countries to pay for the industrialized world's pollution by providing loans for them to adapt to the climate crisis. The World Bank is a spectacularly unqualified institution to address climate change, and the G8 summit has been a spectacular failure in addressing the climate emergency.

The G8 countries' agreed long-term global goal is totally inadequate and they have failed to commit to mid-term targets. Their demands for developing countries to agree to binding commitments show total disregard for their own responsibilities towards the rest of the world."

>Japanese