UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the leaders of the
"Group of Eight" industrialized countries to adopt at their
upcoming summit bold trade liberalization measures while tackling
the energy crisis in a way that respects the environment.
"The lack of significant progress on trade is conspicuous, even
perilous," Annan said in a letter to the leaders of Canada, the
European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain and
the United States, who will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia in
July.
"Developing countries need genuine market access opportunities
for their goods and services, and the least developed countries
should enjoy duty-free and quota-free access for theirs," said the
letter, a text of which was released in UN on Wednesday.
"It is also time for all trade-distorting subsidies for
agriculture to be eliminated, and to do so rapidly for sensitive
products such as cotton," Annan wrote noting that many countries
will need assistance in order to benefit from current and newly
created opportunities, such as the so-called Aid for Trade
program.
"These are just some of the many sensible steps which, while
fostering prosperity and opportunity for people everywhere, would
allow poor and marginalized people, especially in the least
developed countries, to lift themselves out of poverty," Annan
said.
"Yet I fear that the difficulties the negotiations have
encountered have led some participants to contemplate settling for
something less than a true development round. That must not be
allowed to happen," he added, referring to the Doha Round, which is
meant to restructure world trade policy in favor of development in
poorer countries.
Turning to the issue of energy security, Annan noted that 1.6
billion people in developing countries live with no electricity at
all and lack of access to modern energy services -- a formidable
barrier to poverty reduction. These countries will need to nearly
double electrical generating capacity over the coming years to
support industrial and broad economic development.
Moreover, indoor air pollution, resulting for example from
burning traditional biomass, contributes significantly to
respiratory infections in children under five years of age, killing
almost 2 million of them, according to UN World Health Organization
(WHO) estimates.
He stressed that energy security cannot be reached if the
environmental effects of energy consumption, especially the
overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels, are not addressed.
"This reliance puts the very future of humanity at risk, since
these fuels produce greenhouse gases and other pollutants, which
affect the sustainability of life itself," he wrote. "Burning
fossil fuels causes air pollution, which triggers an estimated
800,000 premature deaths every year. And it generates greenhouse
gas emissions, contributing to climate change."
The UN chief regularly sends the G8 leaders a letter ahead of
their annual summit, which he usually attends. Last year, before
the summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, he called on them to rise to
the challenges before them and provide leadership on a raft of
issues, from improving the lot of Africa's poor to combating
terrorism to countering global warming.
(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2006)
