30 March 2006 - The Government has admitted it will fail to meet its target to cut CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2010.

“The Government is sleepwalking into a climate disaster, and we need strong leadership and radical action to avoid its worst impacts,” said Green Party Principal Speaker and Euro-MP Caroline Lucas.

A leaked draft of an agreement to promote oil, gas and nuclear power at the forthcoming G8 summit in St Petersburg show the world’s richest nations are preparing to abandon commitments to tackle poverty and climate change made during their last summit in Gleaneagles last year.

The draft energy communiqué proposes expanding access to fossil fuels through more exploration, drilling and processing, and nuclear and hydro-power plants.

“This draft communiqué is a strategy for fuelling our addiction to oil, not overcoming it,” said Caroline Lucas, Green Party principal speaker and MEP.

“By concentrating on chasing every last barrel of oil and meeting growing energy demand by building new nuclear power stations, this strategy will undermine efforts to tackle climate change and developing world debt adopted at Gleneagles.

“And with an increasing number of scientists warning that we are approaching – if not already past – the point of ‘peak oil’, at which demand for oil and gas outstrips supply, it is unlikely to secure future energy supplies either.

Energy Security is one of three ‘themes’ up for discussion at the G8 leaders’ summit in St Petersburg in July. The leaked draft, which indicates the likely approach of any final deal, calls for financial institutions in G8 countries to back loan applications for oil and nuclear plants.

It is also suggests abandoning controls on access to nuclear energy technology, stating: ‘…we intend to make additional joint efforts to ensure non-discriminatory access to this energy source…’

Dr Lucas, a member of the European parliament’s official delegation to the WTO, said: “Adopting this communiqué – or anything based upon it – would be a disaster.

“It promotes the idea of energy security as though it had nothing to do with the rest of the world: it calls for a world in which energy is plentiful but climate chaos, poverty and conflict rage constantly.

She added: “The Government must disown this agreement and do everything in its power to ensure other G8 members do too – failure to do so will exacerbate poverty, debt and climate change. There is still time to use the summit to chart a bold vision for energy demand reduction and renewable generation.”

ENDS