“And the G7 is making it clear that if necessary we stand ready to impose additional significant sanctions against Russia“.
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For the third time, Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin was barred from a G7 summit due to what United States President Barack Obama termed his “aggression in Ukraine”, as the Group of Seven top powers closed ranks against Russia.
A United States official on Monday disputed a French source’s account that President Barack Obama had told his allies at a G7 summit the strong dollar posed a “problem”.
The broad economic and targeted sanctions already in place will continue until the Minsk ceasefire accords signed between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels is fully implemented, the G7 said in a declaration issued at the end of the two-day summit in Bavaria.
G7 leaders agreed to wean their economies off carbon fuels and supported a global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but stopped short of agreeing their own immediate binding targets.
Leaders from the seven most developed countries in the world have agreed to take action on climate change, vowing to stop the use of fossil fuels within the next century, but gave small details on how they would achieve this carbon free future. “We had hoped for more commitments on what they would do right now”.
The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and European Union took a firm stance on Russia and its involvement in the Ukraine conflict. “Merkel and Obama succeeded in not allowing Canada and Japan to continue blocking progress towards tackling climate change”.
Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators protesting against the policies of the world’s major industrialized countries clashed with police in Garmisch-Partenkirchen of Germany as the G7 leaders prepared to convene in the nearby German alpine resort Elmau for their annual summit.
“In conversations I’ve had here in Europe, people think it is very important for FIFA to be able to operate with integrity, transparency and accountability”, Obama said at a news conference. The sanctions, they said, “can be rolled back when Russia meets these commitments”.
The EU’s President of the Council of Ministers, Donald Tusk, signalled a toughening of sanctions in a statement at the G7, saying: “If anyone wants to start a debate about changing the sanctions regime, the discussion could only be about strengthening it”.
The G7 leaders struck a firm tone on Russia’s role in Ukraine.
Obama spoke shortly after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was among the non-G-7 leaders invited to attend the summit in the Bavarian Alps.
“As a common vision for a global goal of greenhouse gas emissions reductions we support… the upper end of the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) recommendation of 40 to 70 percent reductions by 2050 compared to 2010, recognizing that this challenge can only be met by a global response”.
But the Prime Minister said: “It’s over 700 days since we launched negotiations on the TTIP and every day we don’t do a deal it is costing the global economy £630 million”.
“Though the precise wording is slightly different, this is in effect a strong statement that the Paris agreement should have a long-term goal of net zero emissions in the second half of the century, as many developing countries are calling for”, said Michael Jacobs, advisor to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
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