wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Share global resources, WCC tells G8

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World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 27/05/2005

WCC URGES G8 TO SET SIGHTS ON EQUITABLE SHARING OF GLOBAL RESOURCES

	    Free photo available, see below

The G8 should rethink the logic of corporate globalization and economic
models of excessive competition that have widened the gap between rich and
poor and aggravated destruction of the environment says World Council of
Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a letter to UK
prime minister Tony Blair. The UK government is presiding the G8 in 2005.

The letter, sent to Blair ahead of the next meeting of the G8 in Scotland
in July, holds up a vision of life in dignity for all in just and
sustainable communities, and suggests that only promoting an economy of
sharing and justice can provide a solution to poverty and environmental
destruction.

The letter urges G8 members to "consider seriously how to operationalize
goal number 8 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)", i.e., the goal
of a global partnership for development. Signed by 190 countries in 2000,
the MDGs aim at reducing poverty by the year 2015. "This goal will
determine the success of the remaining seven," Kobia suggests.

On external debt, the letter enjoins the G8 to "cancel 100% of illegitimate debts for poor countries", and proposes a number of measures to reinforce
such action including the suggestion that the IMF and World Bank sell
their gold reserves.

On trade, among other measures, it asks the G8 countries to "give poor
farmers in developing countries a chance to participate in just trade,"
notably by "immediately eliminating all export subsidies in donor
countries".

On climate change, Kobia welcomes Blair's initiative to put this issue on
the forthcoming G8 agenda, and notes that G8 countries "must accept
responsibility for record emissions over decades".

Referring to WCC support for the people and churches of the Pacific "who
are beginning to experience the consequences of global warming," he asks
G8 members "to take decisive action for rapid greenhouse gas emission
reduction" and to develop "a strategic plan for committed global action
post-2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol will
end".

The full text of Kobia's letter to Blair is available on the WCC website
at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/g8-05.html

A free high resolution photo to accompany this article is available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/photo-galleries/other/farmers.html

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.