Statement to the G8, the President of the World Bank and the Executive Director of the IEA

Ottawa, July 14, 2006- Honourable Bryon Wilfert, Member of Parliament for Richmond Hill and Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs (Asia/Pacific) had just returned from Brussels where he attended a GLOBE International Conference on Climate Change.

Research by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency suggests that USD 300 billion per year for the next 25 years will need to be invested to meet the energy needs of developing countries and economies in transition. If we are smart, the investment will be channelled to increase climate and energy security as well as meeting economic and development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, in a low carbon way.

The World Bank estimates that adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change will require an additional USD 10-40 billion per year. If we do not take serious mitigation action now, this figure will increase dramatically and there will be severe impacts on public health and the availability of critical resources including water.

Against this background, our messages to the G8 leaders meeting in St Petersburg are:

• Action on climate change is urgent

• Climate security and energy security are inextricably linked. We welcome the discussion at St Petersburg and encourage the integration of the energy security and climate change elements. Energy efficiency and diversification of energy sources are key responses to both. For developing countries access to energy is vital for sustainable economic development and poverty alleviation.

• We strongly recommend that energy security and climate security remain at the top of the international agenda for the forthcoming German and Japanese presidencies of the G8

• We urge G8 leaders to show leadership by developing a clear framework that accelerates a shift to low carbon economies, including investment in low carbon R&D and business development, in line with the objective of establishing a long term stabilisation goal to avoid dangerous climate change

• We urge the G8 to make adaptation a priority - it is the poor who are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

• We welcome the Mexican chairmanship of the Gleneagles Dialogue in 2006 and urge Heads of Government from the 20 participating countries to ensure that environment ministers, and particularly energy ministers, attend the ministerial in Mexico in October

• We urge G8 finance ministers to meet in early 2007 to secure the necessary finance to drive forward the World Bank's Energy Investment Framework

This statement was formulated by legislators and participants from the G8+5 countries, Members of the European Parliament, business leaders and civil society representatives who met in Brussels 7th - 9th July as part of the ongoing G8+5 Legislators Dialogue on climate change.