[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 27 (Monday, July 14, 2008)]
[Pages 973-975]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the White House Press Pool in Toyako

July 9, 2008

G-8 Summit and Major Economies Leaders Meeting

    Thank you all very much. We've just finished our meetings here in 
Japan. I would call them very productive.
    Our goal was to make progress in five key areas: confronting climate 
change; reinforcing our commitment to a successful Doha agreement; 
fighting disease in Africa; ensuring that the G-8 nations are 
accountable for their commitments; and addressing the challenges of high 
food and energy prices. I'm pleased to report that we've had significant 
success in all of them.
    On climate change, I want to thank the Prime Minister for hosting 
today's meeting of leaders from the world's major economies. In order to 
address climate change, all major economies must be at the table. And 
that's what took place today. The G-8 expressed our desire to have a 
significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. We made it clear and 
the other nations agreed that they must also participate in an ambitious 
goal, with interim goals and interim plans, to enable the world to 
successfully address climate change. And we made progress, significant 
progress, toward a comprehensive approach.
    One way to meet objectives is to invest in technology, both at the 
national and international levels, both through the private and public 
sectors. And the United States, Japan, and United Kingdom launched 
what's called a clean technology fund, and we hope Congress funds that 
effort. It's a way to help developing nations afford the technologies so 
that they can become good stewards of the environment.
    We're also taking steps to promote clean technologies by cooperating 
on research and development. You know, I firmly believe that we can 
become less dependent on oil through new technology, and obviously, 
we're going to have to spend some money on research and development to 
be able to achieve that objective.
    On other matters, the G-8 leaders emphasized the critical importance 
of concluding a Doha round. We want the world to trade

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freely. We want to make sure markets are open for agricultural goods and 
manufacturing goods and services. We also recognize that the best way to 
help alleviate poverty is through trade. And so we had good discussions 
over the past couple of days about successfully completing the Doha 
round by the end of this year.
    We also made some progress on alleviating sickness in Africa. The G-
8 committed $60 billion over 5 years to fight HIV/AIDS and other 
diseases. I'm also pleased to report the G-8 leaders pledged to provide 
100 million long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets by 2010 to help 
deal with malaria. As you know, the United States has been in the 
forefront of trying to help nations eradicate malaria, and the G-8 
nations stepped forward to support our efforts. And I appreciate that 
very much.
    We also committed with partner nations in Africa to train new health 
care workers--can't solve health care problems unless there's health 
care workers on the ground. And the United States is involved with that. 
And finally, we are working to expand our efforts to treat key neglected 
tropical diseases, with the goal of reaching 75 percent of victims in 
the most affected countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America within 5 
years. [Inaudible]--we had a comprehensive agenda on helping those who 
are being affected by disease live healthy lives.
    I've always believed, to whom much is given, much is required. The 
nations sitting around the table have got much, and I think we're 
required to help those who don't. Pledges are important. Those have 
been--you know, oftentimes in the political process people talk big, but 
they never follow up. And so one of the key ingredients of these recent 
meetings was all of us need to be reminded that when we say we're going 
to do something, we got to do it. And so accountability is an important 
part of fulfilling our obligations.
    We agreed to release detailed reports on our progress in meeting the 
commitments, breaking down our efforts, country by country, disease by 
disease. This, of course, will help ensure the G-8 initiatives are 
measurable and transparent, so that we're held accountable for the 
promises we make.
    And finally, we agreed on steps to deal with hunger and high energy 
prices. We agreed to meet short-term food needs by providing emergency 
food shipments and increasing access to fertilizer and seeds and 
encouraging other nations to eliminate their export restrictions. We 
also agreed on steps to relieve hunger in the longer term, including 
working to double production of key food staples in several African 
countries, accelerating access to new agricultural technology such as 
new seed varieties developed through biotechnology. We're also seeking 
to increase the amount of food aid supplied by local producers. In other 
words, instead of the United States just simply giving food, we ought to 
be buying food from local producers so that they can develop their own 
agricultural industries, so to help deal with world hunger.

    We also agreed that on high energy prices--look, we got to deal with 
both on the supply and demand. On the supply side, oil and production 
refining capacity need to be increased. And the United States needs to 
do its part. The Democratic leaders in Congress will not allow us to 
explore for oil and gas in parts of Alaska, offshore America, and now is 
the time for them to change their mind. We also--I'm firmly--believe 
that we can do this kind of exploration in environmentally friendly 
ways.

    On the demand side, we agreed to take new steps to increase energy 
efficiency, and we agreed that fuel subsidies that artificially inflate 
demand should be eliminated or reduced.

    In other words, this was a--you know, a lot of meetings on important 
subjects, and we accomplished a lot. By protecting our environment and 
resisting protectionism and fighting disease and promoting development 
and improving the daily life for millions around the world, we serve 
both our interests as Americans, and we serve the interests of the 
world.

    We've enjoyed our stay here in Japan. I want to thank the Prime 
Minister once again for his grand hospitality. And I appreciate you all 
covering this summit. Thank you very much.

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Note: The President spoke at 4:22 p.m. at the Windsor Hotel Toya Resort 
and Spa. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of 
Japan.