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Fact Sheet: the President's Push for Accountability Highlights Successful
G-8 Summit, Hokkaido Toyako, Japan
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 8, 2008

Fact Sheet: the President's Push for Accountability Highlights Successful
G-8 Summit, Hokkaido Toyako, Japan

ÿÿWhite House News

ÿÿÿÿÿ G8 Summit 2008

"It's in our national interests that America help deal with hopelessness;
and it's in our moral interests that we help brothers and sisters who hurt.
It's been the policy of the Bush Administration since day one."

President George W. Bush, February 17, 2008


The President, in Collaboration with Other Leaders from the G-8 Nations,
Took Action to:
  þ Place accountability firmly on the G-8 agenda by releasing the first
    detailed reports on implementation of commitments on health and
    corruption, and requesting additional reports for the future;
  þ Improve global food security by addressing urgent needs for food while
    launching mid-term and long-term work to promote sound policies and
    double food production in key African countries;
  þ Stress the need for concerted efforts to address the underlying supply
    and demand side causes of the rise in oil prices;
  þ Advance work on climate change by:
      þ Stressing that effective action on climate change requires all
        major economies to commit to meaningful, mid-term mitigation
        actions bound in a new international agreement;
      þ Seeking a long-term vision of a low-carbon society and for all
        parties to UN Climate Change Convention to consider and adopt a
        goal of at least having halving emissions by 2050; and
      þ Taking tangible actions to develop and deploy clean energy
        technologies through increased R_
  þ Announce new U.S.-led health initiatives to save more lives in
    developing countries by training health workers and treating certain
    major neglected tropical diseases;
  þ Stress that a successful conclusion of an ambitious, balanced and
    comprehensive World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha agreement is critical
    to economic growth and development;
  þ Encourage the liberalization of capital markets and assure
    nondiscriminatory treatment and high standards of investment
    protection;
  þ Commit to a common set of principles by which we will fight terrorism;
    and
  þ Advance consensus on pressing regional issues.

G-8 Accountability

G-8 Leaders Recognized the Need to Ensure Prompt and Transparent
Implementation of Past Commitments by:
  þ Issuing a detailed report and matrices on G-8 member progress to meet
    key health commitments and establishing a follow-up mechanism to ensure
    continued progress;
  þ Pledging to fulfill over 5 years the $60 billion commitment to fight
    HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TBÿ made at Heiligendamm;
  þ Keeping up momentum towards eradicating polio by maintaining or
    increasing funding for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and
    encouraging other donors to do the same;
  þ Requesting progress reports on implementation of commitments on water
    and education for delivery at the 2009 G-8 summit; and
  þ Reaffirming their commitment to fight corruption, welcoming a report on
    G-8 member actions to implement commitments on anti-corruption, and
    pledging to prepare the report annually

Food Security

Building on the President's Recent Food Security Initiative, G-8 Leaders
Took Action by:ÿ
  þ Welcoming the over $10 billion committed by the G-8 since January 2008
    for short-, medium-, and long-term purposes to support food aid,
    nutrition, and measures to increase agricultural output in affected
    countries;
  þ Agreeing to work toward doubling production of key food staples in 5-10
    years in African countries that meet the criteria of the Comprehensive
    Africa Agriculture Development Program;
  þ Working with the international community to form a global partnership
    on agriculture and food;
  þ Seeking to ensure more food is available by calling for removing export
    restrictions;
  þ Looking for opportunities to build up local agriculture by promoting
    local purchase of food aid;
  þ Recognizing the need for an urgent and successful conclusion of an
    ambitious, comprehensive and balanced WTO Doha Round;
  þ Pledging to increase access to new agricultural technologies and
    promoting science-based risk analysis including on the contribution of
    seed varieties developed through biotechnology;
  þ Promoting the training of a new generation of developing country
    scientists; and
  þ Tasking a new G-8 Experts Group to monitor implementation of
    commitments.

Energy Security

G-8 Leaders Reaffirmed Shared Interests and Responsibility in Promoting
Energy Security by:
  þ Stressing the need for concerted efforts to address the underlying
    supply and demand side causes of the rise in oil prices;
  þ Emphasizing the importance of transparency, energy efficiency, and
    diversification;
  þ Reiterating their commitment to the St. Petersburg Energy Security
    Principles and stressing the importance of well-functioning markets
    that send undistorted price signals and are free from any political
    pressure; and
  þ Supporting efforts of the Joint Oil Data Initiative partner
    organizations to improve the quality, completeness and timeliness of
    oil market data.

New Health Commitments

G-8 Leaders Demonstrated Their Commitment to Save More Lives by:
  þ Committing to train health workers in African countries that are
    experiencing a critical shortage,ÿ in an effort to work towards the
    World Health Organization threshold of a minimum of 2.3 health workers
    per 1,000 people;
  þ Agreeing to work to reach, within 5 years, at least 75 percent of
    people with certain major neglected tropical diseases in the most
    affected countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; and
  þ Pledging to provide 100 million long-lasting insecticide-treated bed
    nets through bilateral and multilateral assistance, in partnership with
    other stakeholders, by 2010.

Climate Change, Clear Energy Technology, and Energy Efficiency

G-8 Leaders Agreed that Actions by All Major Economies are Essential for
Tackling Climate Change While Also:
  þ Looking forward to and endorsing the positive contribution of the Major
    Economies Leaders Meeting to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
    Change (UNFCCC) process;
  þ Seeking to share with all parties of the UNFCCC the vision of moving to
    a low-carbon society, and together with them to consider and adopt the
    goal of achieving at least a 50 percent reduction of global emissions
    by 2050, recognizing the need for contributions by all major economies;
  þ Recognizing that an effective post-2012 climate change regime will
    require all major economies, developed and developing, to commit to
    meaningful mitigation actions bound in a new international agreement;
  þ Welcoming the establishment of the Clean Technology Fund proposed by
    President Bush in September 2007, towards which the United States is
    pledging $2 billion over 3 years;
  þ Committing to increasing investment in clean energy technology R_ÿ
  þ Calling for enhanced efforts in the WTO Doha Round to eliminate tariff
    and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services with a view
    to significantly expanding dissemination of clean technology and
    services; and
  þ Agreeing to maximize implementation in each of our countries of the
    International Energy Agency (IEA) 25 recommendations on energy
    efficiency and supporting the new International Partnership for Energy
    Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC).

Development and Africa

G-8 Leaders Reiterated that Development Cooperation is Based on Mutual
Accountability:
  þ Reaffirming that G-8 development work will be grounded in a set of core
    development policy principles reflecting those of the Administration's
    Millennium Challenge Corporation, including good governance and
    broad-based private sector-led growth, and that country ownership and
    partnership are essential for effective development assistance;
  þ Renewing their commitment to the agenda agreed in the Monterrey
    Conference on Financing for Development for mobilizing all available
    sources of financing;
  þ Working with Africans to create conditions that increase private
    investment including greater institutional capacity in financial
    markets, partnerships to develop infrastructure, investment climate
    reform, risk-sharing guarantees for entrepreneurs, and support for
    investment funds; and
  þ Facilitating free and open trade through the multilateral trade system
    and implementing commitments made regarding trade-related technical
    assistance.

Open Global Economy

G-8 Leaders Noted the Importance of Open Markets by:
  þ Stressing the importance of promptly concluding an ambitious and
    balanced WTO Doha Round that achieves positive and tangible results in
    agriculture, industrial goods, and services, recognizing that major
    emerging economies must do their share to help lift millions out of
    poverty;
  þ Assuring nondiscriminatory treatment and high standards of investment
    protection;
  þ Encouraging capital markets liberalization and facilitating
    cross-borderÿinvestmentÿflows, including through the mutual recognition
    of comparable securities regimes; and
  þ Welcoming commitments by some sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to greater
    transparency and encouraging ongoing work to identify best practices
    for SWFs and recipient countries of SWF investment.

Peacekeeping and Reconstruction and Stabilization

G-8 Leaders Committed to Fulfill Efforts to Build Capability for
Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding by:
  þ Providing quality training and equipping troops, as well an enhanced
    logistics and transportation support for deployment;
  þ Strengthening assistance to train and equip police in countries in and
    emerging from conflict and efforts to develop civilian human resources
    to play core roles in peacebuilding; and
  þ Supporting the African Union and regional economic communities in
    enhancing Africa's peacekeeping capabilities.

Nonproliferation

G-8 Leaders Strengthened Efforts Against the Proliferation of Weapons of
Mass Destruction by:
  þ Expanding the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and
    Materials of Mass Destruction to address worldwide proliferation
    threats;
  þ Agreeing to work collectively to achieve a successful outcome of the
    2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference; and
  þ Stressing the importance of full compliance with UNSC Resolution 1540.

Counterterrorism

G-8 Leaders Reaffirmed their Commitment to Counter the Terrorist Threat by:
  þ Agreeing that counterterrorism work by G-8 countries would be guided by
    shared principles, including that all terrorist acts are criminal,
    unjustifiable, and must be unequivocally condemned; that suicide
    bombings are a particularly despicable tactic; that abductions and the
    taking of hostages by terrorists are repugnant practices to be strongly
    condemned; that conflict, oppression, and poverty do not excuse or
    justify terrorism; and that terrorist abuse of the freedoms inherent to
    democratic societies to spread hated and incite violence will not be
    tolerated;
  þ Committing to strengthen efforts to combat terrorist financing,
    including use of cash couriers and bulk cash smuggling, and preventing
    exploitation and terrorist abuse of the charitable sector; and
  þ Calling on all UN Member States to implement UN measures to counter
    terrorism, including the Global Counter-terrorism Strategy and relevant
    Security Council resolutions.

G-8 Leaders Discussed How to Advance Common Interests in Critical Regions,
including:

Iran

G-8 Leaders Strongly Urged Iran to Comply With Its International
Obligations.ÿ They:
  þ Expressed serious concern about the Iranian regime's continued defiance
    of the international community's demand that it suspend all uranium
    enrichment, reprocessing, and heavy water-related activities; and
  þ Reiterated to the Iranian regime that it faces a stark choice:
    non-cooperation and continued sanctions, or cooperation.

Afghanistan-Pakistan

G-8 Leaders Welcomed the G-8 Foreign Ministers Statement on Afghanistan.ÿ
The G-8:
  þ Reaffirmed the importance of economic and social development, along
    with border control measures, in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border
    region; and
  þ Committed to further strengthen coordination of G-8 efforts in the
    Afghanistan-Pakistan border region in cooperation with the respective
    countries, international organizations, and other parties.

North Korea

G-8 Leaders Strongly Urged the DPRK to Fulfill Immediately All Its
Commitments, Including by:
  þ Fully cooperating in the comprehensive verification of its declaration
    of all nuclear programs, including early establishment of the
    verification regime and its effective implementation; and
  þ Abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and
    returning, at an early date, to the NPT and IAEA safeguards.

Zimbabwe

G-8 Leaders Stressed Their Grave Concern About the Situation in Zimbabwe.ÿ
They:
  þ Deplored the actions of the Zimbabwe authorities that made a free and
    fair Presidential run-off election impossible;
  þ Strongly urged the Zimbabwe authorities to work with the opposition to
    achieve a prompt, peaceful resolution of the crisis in accordance with
    the democratic will of the people as expressed in the March 29
    elections;
  þ Committed to take further steps, inter alia, introducing financial and
    other measures against those individuals responsible for violence; and
  þ Expressed deep concern over the suspension of humanitarian aid.

Middle East Peace Process

G-8 Leaders Reiterated Their Support for the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian
Negotiations.ÿ They:
  þ Called on all parties to refrain from any action that would undermine
    the negotiations and to implement their Road Map obligations; and
  þ Welcomed the recent political progress in Lebanon and called on all
    parties to comply with relevant United Nations Security Council
    Resolutions.ÿ

Burma

G-8 Leaders Expressed Strong Concern About the Political Situation in
Burma.ÿ They:
  þ Called on the authorities in Burma to immediately release all political
    detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to foster a transition to a
    legitimate, democratic, civilian government; and
  þ Remain committed to ensuring aid reaches those affected by Cyclone
    Nargis and call on the authorities in Burma to lift all remaining
    restrictions on access for foreign aid workers.

Sudan

G-8 Leaders Reiterated Their Strong Concern About the Deteriorating
Situation in Darfur.ÿ The G-8:
  þ Urged all parties to commit to an immediate ceasefire and reengage with
    the peace process;
  þ Stated their continued support for UNAMID, encouraged countries to
    provide assistance to the mission, and urged the Government of Sudan to
    assist in expediting its full deployment; and
  þ With regard to Darfur, called on all parties to abide by their
    obligations under the relevant United Nations Security Council
    Resolutions

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