Today’s purposeful
discussions between the G8 and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and
South Africa mark an important step towards an equal and enduring
partnership for building the framework conditions of a globalized
and competitive world economy. In a globalizing world, we have to
look beyond national and regional boundaries and work together.
Towards this endeavour, we commit to cooperate in the following
fields:
- Promoting Cross Border Investment to our Mutual Benefit:
We recognize that cross-border direct investment is a major factor
shaping the world’s economy. Such inflows can make a major positive
contribution to economic growth and sustainable development. We
share a common interest in promoting investment and to safeguard and
further develop a sound global investment environment. To this end,
we shall work together to promote more favourable conditions in our
countries for investment, both domestic and foreign, with the aim of
fostering economic growth and sustainable development. This may also
include the encouragement of responsible business conduct.
- Promoting Research
and Innovation:
Strategies to encourage and support research and innovation are key
elements for future sustainable development of our economies. In
this context, we underline the importance of integrating the
promotion and protection of innovation in our national policies and
legislation. We encourage a positive exchange of views on
international experiences related to the crucial role and economic
value of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and
implementation of agreed international IPR protection standards. In
this exchange we also need to consider the protection of IPRs in
conjunction with common good of human kind for the purposes of
protecting the environment and supporting public health. In this
regard, we recall the Doha Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and
public health. We affirm our commitment for further cooperation in
capacity building, human resource development and public awareness
programmes in the field of intellectual property.
- Fighting Climate
Change:
We face serious challenges in tackling climate change and achieving
sustainable development globally. We reaffirm our commitment to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and
to its objective through both mitigation and adaptation in
accordance with our common but differentiated responsibilities and
respective capabilities. On this basis and taking into account the
scientific knowledge as represented in the recent IPCC reports, we
remain committed to contribute our fair share to tackle climate
change in order to stabilize green house gas concentrations at a
level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with
the climate system. To this end we need a flexible, fair and
effective global framework and concerted international action. We
underline the crucial role of economic incentives, in particular by
carbon markets, for the necessary investments in climate friendly
technologies at large scale. The adaptation to climate change will
be a major challenge for all countries, in particular for developing
countries , and means for adaptation need to be included in a future
agreement along with enhanced technology cooperation and financing.
We call on all parties to actively and constructively participate in
the negotiations on a comprehensive agreement at the UNFCCC
Conference in Indonesia in December 2007.
- Energy:
We recognise the
need for closer, more practical and result-oriented regional and
international cooperation in the energy sector, especially in
ensuring secure and affordable supplies of energy as well as in
improving energy efficiency and the access to advanced and
affordable energy technologies. We confirm our commitment to promote
energy efficiency, through cost-effective solutions, to advance the
effective
use of fossil fuels, such as the clean coal technology, and to
increase the use of cleaner and renewable energy sources, such as
biofuels and biomass, as an important step towards secure, stable
and competitive energy supplies for achieving sustainable
development.
- Development, particularly in Africa:
We reiterate our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
the eradication of poverty and sustainable global development. In
view of our responsibility regarding the challenges of development
we shall strengthen cooperation and coordination between us to
achieve these goals.
We commit to embark on a high-level dialogue on specific challenges
as proposed by the G8 (Heiligendamm Process) as a follow up to
continue our discussion in a more structured manner for a period of
two years until the G8 Summit in 2009 where we will review the
progress made on the following issues: Promoting cross border
investment to our mutual benefit, Promoting Research and Innovation,
Development, particularly Africa, and Sharing Knowledge for
improving Energy Efficiency.
Berlin
June 8, 2007
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