The world in their hands: What can come from the G8 summit?

(CNN) -- From July 7 to 9, the small town of Toyako in Japan will become the center of the world when the leaders of the G8 countries meet for their annual summit.

With record oil prices and food crises affecting every country across the world, top of the agenda will be energy, the environment and climate change.

Expected to be part of the discussions is how to move beyond the emissions targets created by the UN's Kyoto Protocol, but what will actually come from the supposedly frank and open discussions?

We canvassed the opinions of some of the world leaders working at the sharp end of combating climate change and asked them what they thought would come from the summit and just what they would say to the leaders themselves if they had the chance.

The activist: Von Hernandez, Director, Greenpeace Southeast Asia

One of the leading environmental activists in Asia, he campaigned, successfully, to ban waste incineration, an enormous source of toxic pollution, in the Philippines. Continuing to lobby governments and inspire grassroots activism, he talked to CNN from Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior.

CNN: What do you expect from the G8 summit?

Hernandez: "After the UN meeting in Bali last year people are expecting that governments will take the action needed and that leadership should be coming from G8 countries.

But it seems like our leaders have gone back to sleep again. In respect to the most industrialized nations, they are still dilly-dallying, particularly in the U.S. government that has refusing to make solid commitments to reduce their commitments reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by 1990 levels by 2050.

There is a great demand that the G8 leaders show real leadership, particularly Japan which is hosting the meeting. The recent mood by the Japanese government not to make mid-term or long term commitments is very worrying.

What they're trying to do is get the major developing economies involved before making a commitment, which is a bit unfair because the historical responsibility rests on the developed countries first and foremost.

They have to show that political will and other countries will follow. I think they will also be discussing the food crisis that is also tied to climate change, the rising price on oil and speculation over biofuels. Already oil prices are creating a debate in Southeast Asia on renewables.

Unfortunately in terms of G8 what they propose will be nuclear instead. G8 has to commit to major investment to make sure renewable resources are tapped and developing countries are weaned off their reliance on fossil fuels. I think the resources are there, especially in G8 countries to make that energy revolution.

CNN: What would you say to the G8 leaders?

Hernandez: "Now is the time to demonstrate real leadership. The kind of leadership that you have demonstrated so far has been uninspiring and motivated by greed. It's now time to show leadership that you can change the world."

The environmental policy advisor: Tom Burke

Tom Burke is a British environmental policy advisor to Rio Tinto plc, one of the world's largest mining and resource companies. He is also the founding director of E3G, a not for profit organization that works to promote sustainable development. As well as chairing numerous environmental forums, he was formerly the executive director of Friends of the Earth.

CNN: What do you expect from the G8 summit?

Burke: Unless the developing world sees the developed world as being serious about climate change, then it's going to be very hard to get agreements in Copenhagen [UN climate change conference in 2009] and right now China, India and other countries look at what we're doing rather than what we're saying and they quite correctly come to the conclusion that we're not serious.

The way we indicated that we're serious is by putting real money into the carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects.

That would help create the political conditions under which agreement can be met in Copenhagen. My personal view is that I don't think the political conditions are really there, so what you'll get in Toyako is just more words. You won't get a decision, just words they can all live with and sound as if something serious is going to happen, but it won't amount to a real political bargain which is what ought to come out of the G8.

The leaders should all go home and put some real money in CCS. It just needs the current leaders to recognize that this is a problem that threatens the prosperity and security of every single citizen in their countries, and they're not doing very much about it yet. There's been a build up from the G8 energy ministers meeting [in early June] that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an imperative and not an option. Coal is going to get burnt and if that coal gets burnt without carbon capture and storage then you accelerate climate change beyond the bounds of reason.

We've got to stop dithering on CCS and recognize it's an imperative and what we really need to do is get the 30 or so demonstration projects around the world up and running right away.

That's the kind of thing you really need to do, and that means spending money. That's not going to be done by carbon prices or some sort of carbon mechanism, it's only going to be done if governments decide to spend the money to accelerate the demonstration projects right away.

CNN: What would you say to the G8 leaders?

Burke: The short version is: "Stop stealing our kids' future."

They really do need to get real about what we have got to do to avoid catastrophic climate change -- it's too late to avoid dangerous climate change -- and that means spending massive amounts of money on transforming the energy infrastructure If they want to know what they can do to make a difference right now, go home and spend some money on carbon capture and storage.

The IPCC author: Dr. Atiq Rahman

Awarded the 2008 UN Champion of the Earth award for Asia and the Pacific for his work on sustainable development, he is also executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies and one of the principal authors of the IPCC report.

CNN: What do you expect from the G8 summit?

Rahman: The world's biggest crisis at the moment is the food crisis. This is the beginning of a major crisis that will have upheaval throughout the world and there are links to the environmental impacts. Climate change is undoubtedly one of the biggest threats that the world faces today.

G8 are the people who are primarily responsible and G8 associates, the rich countries, are legally responsible for the climate change of the last 200 years. Of course the emerging nations will be mega producers of greenhouse gases, but in terms of per capita use, they won't reach anywhere near where the rich countries have reached.

Food security issues and energy security issues immediately impinge on water security and that is a cocktail which can make social issues rage quite strongly, and when that happens political security doesn't look good.

Japan has to take responsibility that whatever the remnants of the Kyoto protocol are still there will have a chance of survival. There is life after Bali, but it's a question of how much life can you breathe into a dying patient.

I'm not a fan of the G8, it's a club of the rich, and I think they can only do so much. Their whole context isn't about saving the planet, it's a context of satisfying a very narrow economic agenda of the ruling elites. Things have moved on since the IPCC which because of its nature was conservative in its report.

The sense of urgency that should reflect the current state of climate change is not being seen. They will at the most recognize IPCC, but they won't go beyond that.

CNN: What would you say to the G8 leaders?

Rahman: Signals are loud and clear and the destabilization of society across the world is almost knocking, the markets are not behaving as they are expected. The whole biodiesel issue may be a relatively small one but has created signs where food vs. petrol does not look like a very humane way of approaching global political issues, and the poor will be the worst sufferers of all.

But it won't just affect poor countries, and social destabilization across the globe is not in the interest of anyone.

I'm sorry it's not a pretty picture, but they have to give some signals that the world can be a better place. If they can't do that and people have nothing to hold on to then that discontent might be out of the hands of even the mightiest.

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