G20 Meeting invites Business, Excludes Civil Society

"We recognised the need for continued and enhanced dialogue between producers and consumers. We also met in a working lunch with global business leaders to discuss ways to strengthen energy and minerals markets."

The select group of business leaders to lunch with G20 Finance ministers and bureaucrats included: Mr Charles Goodyear, CEO, BHP Billiton Limited; Mr Leigh Clifford, CEO, Rio Tinto Limited; Dr Ali Al-Naimi, Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of Saudi Aramco; Mr Roger Agnelli, Managing President of CVRD; Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, Anglo American plc; Mr Ron Brenneman, President and CEO, PetroCanada; and Sir Robert Wilson, Chairman of BG Group.

Accordiing to the Australian Newspaper 16 November:

CHIEF executives from the world's most powerful oil and mining companies are flying to Melbourne to help Peter Costello persuade the G20 nations to liberalise trade and investment in the resources industry.

A new organisation, the Energy and Minerals Business Council, will hold its inaugural meeting on Saturday at the same hotel, the Grand Hyatt, as the G20 summit.

It is expected the chief executives will address the gathering of world financial leaders.

The organisation has been formed by Australia's two resource giants, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, to support the Treasurer's ambition to get the barriers to free markets in the energy and resource industry on to the agenda of the G20 summit.

The group's existence has been kept secret so it does not become a focus for protest. This is the first time a business group has had access to the G20.

So while G20 Finance ministers were quite prepared to meet world business leaders in mining and energy industries, they would not comtemplate meeting with Aid, Development and Environmental Non-Government Organisations on reducing poverty and third world debt, and in discussing the financial aspects of the global social and environmental challenges of climate change, peak oil, the development of alternative energy technologies, and continuing escalating environmental destruction.

I smell a strong element of hypocrisy.

Climate Change

On climate change the G20 communique said "We discussed the links between energy and climate change policy, including the role of market-based mechanisms, and agreed that the G-20 would monitor this issue."

Costello reluctantly put climate change on the agenda at the last moment under pressure of British Treasury Secretary Stephen Timms, who wanted to make a presentation on the Stern report on climate change. The report itself was distributed to the finance ministers and central bankers attending the meeting. Mr Timms was reported in the Australian as saying that the Stern report represented the first time that the science and economics of climate change had been brought together. "What we want is this report and its conclusions to be discussed as widely as possible," he said.

But there was no mention in the G20 communique of the Stern report on the Economics of Climate Change and what the G20 countries are going to do to avert massive financial costs by delaying expenditure on reducing greenhouse gas production in the next 10-15 years. Stern said that Climate change is a massive failure in the market economy. Indeed, an essential ingredient of businees today is to privatise profits for the wealth of the few and move social and environmental expenses to the public purse.

But expect more consumer production and international trade: "We agreed that enhancing global trade by strengthening markets, and ensuring sustainability by promoting investment and encouraging efficiency, are the best ways to deliver lasting resource security."

Reducing Poverty and Third World Debt Reduction

There were a few crumbs on Aid and Debt Reduction: "Building on the G-20 Statement on Global Development Issues in 2005, we welcome recent increases in aid and debt relief and underscore the importance of pledges of further aid increases being fulfilled, along with renewed efforts to improve the quality of aid. We also underscored the importance of helping countries reap the benefits of higher aid and debt relief, and avoid a new build-up of unsustainable debt. Increased development financing must be accompanied by improved aid effectiveness to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. All G-20 members have pledged their support for the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. We agreed that the G-20 will work toward improving aid effectiveness and good governance in the period ahead."

Make Poverty History co-chair Tim Costello (brother to Australian Treasurer Peter Costello) said: “The G-20 final communiqué demonstrates a failure to understand that if we don’t strike a decisive blow against global poverty we can’t expect to win a war on terror or find a lasting solution to climate change.

“The G-20 has been much ado about nothing. They might as well as have stayed at home as brought Melbourne to a halt given the complete lack of leadership that their final communiqué demonstrates.”

Co-chair Andrew Hewett said: “There’s no cheer for the world’s poor from this meeting. The leaders of the G-20 have forsaken a critical opportunity to strike a decisive blow against poverty and failed to continue the momentum of last year’s G8.

“There is an urgent need for leadership on both sides of the political divide in our efforts to tackle global poverty. We are all being let down by our leaders on this critical issue.”

And that was the G20 meeting. A good hobnob for the business and political elite to meet to further their agenda of economic development, resource exploitation, reduction in tariff and trade barriers. Maintain the economic enslavement of third world countries through the IMF and World Bank, with just enough debt writeoff to avoid massive third world civil unrest.

Pure Neo-liberalism with its ideological adoption of market economics to the exclusion of social and environmental costs. And with climate change these costs are mounting to affect every person and every economy on the planet. Massive movements of Environmental refugees will become common, agriculture will change as rainfall and climate changes. Potable drinking water, once only an issue in third world countries, will increasingly become a first world problem.

While media attention is focussed on a bit of argy bargy between protesters and police in the streets of Melbourne, the real social criminals made their getaway in limousines. Next year, the Financial elite will meet in South Africa.

Sources and References:

• G20 communique
• Treasurer Peter Costello Press release on the G20 meeting
• Make Poverty History Press Release 19 Nov - G20: an opportunity lost (PDF)
• The Australian 16 Nov 2006 - Energy Chiefs sneak into G20
• Melbourne Indymedia 15 Nov 2006 - G20 - "I Can't Believe it"
• The Australian 17 Nov 206 - Costello adds climate to G20 agenda
• Melbourne Social Forum - G20 Alternatives
• Why oppose the G20?
• Greed-20 vs Green-20: Alternatives in our lives and communities
• Chain Reaction #98 - September 2006 Strong Communities, Sane World: challenging the G20's neoliberal agenda (4MB PDF)