German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, walks with U.S. President Barack Obama, right, and British Prime Minister David Cameron after a group photo of G-7 leaders
After spending much of the first day talking about Ukraine, leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies shifted their focus yesterday to global issues including climate change, terrorism and the threat from diseases such as Ebola.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel aimed to get backing for a strong agreement on cutting back carbon-based fuels and renewing commitments to limit global warming to a 2 degree Celsius rise in temperatures, as well as providing USD100 billion in aid to poor countries dealing with the impact of climate change.
An agreement among the G-7 would send a strong signal to the upcoming climate change conference in Paris later this year.
But Japan and Canada, in particular, have been less enthusiastic about the kind of strong agreement hoped for by Merkel, who has been labeled the “climate chancellor” in Germany.
The G-7 — which used to be the G-8 until Russia was excluded last year over its actions in Ukraine — also opened its doors to guest speakers from international organizations and developing countries yesterday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and were on hand to brief leaders on global programs to combat poverty and disease.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, meanwhile, offered his country’s views on the fight against the Islamic State group.
The G-7 planned to return briefly to the situation in Ukraine, specifically the country’s dire economic state, in a discussion with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde.
The summit was scheduled to wrap up in the early afternoon.
Protesters, who were kept far from the conference venue, staged a final rally nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen yesterday morning. Police said the event was peaceful . Frank Jordans, Elmau AP
activists project green lasers on mountain
Activists have had a hard time sending their message to the G-7 leaders, who are tucked away in a secluded Alpine valley guarded by thousands of police. So Greenpeace decided yesterday to project its demands onto a nearby mountain. The environmental group used green lasers to beam the words “G-7: Go for 100 percent renewables” onto the side of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak. Greenpeace climate policy chief Martin Kaiser said he hopes German Chancellor Angela Merkel will manage to convince climate holdouts such as Japan’s Shinzo Abe to drastically cut down on carbon emissions in the coming decades.
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