ROME, July 8 (Reuters) - Following are analysts' comments on a draft statement drawn up by the Group of Eight at their summit in Italy, covering a range of issues including energy markets and the need for reaching the Doha trade goals. There was no specific reference to currencies or foreign exchange in the draft, while any reference to the goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 has been dropped. The draft documents were seen by Reuters on Wednesday. CLIMATE TOM PICKEN, HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH "The G8 last year widely floundered as it set a 2050 target with no reference to baselines. But in any case, this is a group of 8 industrialised countries trying to set targets for 42 years' time. It is not the job of the G8 to be doing that. The G8 countries themselves, which are historically responsible for the majority of emissions in the atmosphere today, should be stepping up and making massive commitments to urgent reductions themselves. We want more than 40 percent reductions by 2020 in industrialised countries, through genuine reductions not through offsetting." TREVOR SIKORSKI, HEAD OF CARBON RESEARCH, BARCLAYS CAPITAL "It is curious as most countries came out with negotiating targets in talks in Bonn last month. That was a positive signal for the market. But the G8 has most of the same countries and I am not sure why they are shying away now. Maybe they don't want to wade in at the moment. 2050 is not too meaningful for the market as it is too far away and many countries have actually revealed their own quite aggressive targets. The Copenhagen process as a whole remains the most important thing for the market." HENRIK HASSELKNIPPE, HEAD OF CARBON ANALYSIS, POINT CARBON "One shouldn't really look for market signals in vision statements relating to targets 30-40 years down the line. The carbon market will not in any way be impacted by this." ERIC BOONMAN, CARBON TRADER, FORTIS NETHERLANDS "It is quite neutral news as it was to be expected. It's not good news as we have been trying to get long term targets in place and it means less confidence in the carbon market. There is a fair chance that there wont be an agreement this year anyway but a timeline for an agreement in 2010 so Obama can get the federal states behind him and get the necessary support in time at home." ENERGY MARKET PAUL HARRIS, BANK OF IRELAND "It sounds like quite an empty statement. It is difficult to see how they can take volatility away, apart from tighter regulation of commodity exchanges. It is also relevant that, in respect of consuming countries being able to hold sway over OPEC, we saw last year that the pleas for increased production ... fell on deaf ears." SIMON WARDELL, SENIOR ENERGY ANALYST, IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT "It looks like a first step towards a deeper investigation, laying out suggestions but no actual legislation looks imminent at this stage ... On the transparency side, there is perhaps a suggestion that they want more data from the OPEC countries on reserves, and on consumption (from oil users). "We probably need to do more work on what is causing the price movements before tinkering around with the structure of the market." OLIVIER JAKOB, OIL ANALYST, PETROMATRIX "I would not trade one cent on the G8 ... There is more fear about the CFTC (U.S. regulator) than about the G8. "The CFTC is looking towards imposing limits on the energy market, though that is still a few months away." AMRITA SAN, BARCLAYS CAPITAL OIL ANALYST IN LONDON "More transparency is always welcome but there is always a risk that further regulatory action could have a negative impact. "Our view is that the price rise this year has been driven by fundamentals, as the oil price had simply fallen too low to encourage future investment. But there is a camp which believes speculation is behind the price rise. "Any misguided regulation could have the effect of actually increasing volatility by reducing liquidity in the market." THE DOLLAR GAVIN FRIEND, STRATEGIST, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK On no mention of the dollar: "It's normality restored. Heading into this event there was a little risk of dollar weakening. The dollar could move up a little now as risk aversion rises." TAKAO HATTORI, SENIOR INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, MITSUBISHI UFJ SECURITIES "Talks on the role of the dollar have made the market unstable. Since we need to stick with the dollar as the key global currency for a while, despite some problems, the lack of reference on the dollar will removed an unstable factor for the market. "Although there have been signs of stability in the economy and the sentiment has improved, the real economy has not recovered yet with job and wage conditions still stagnant. "Japan, for one, had in the past stopped its economic steps when signs of a recovery emerged, and that prevented it from achieving a full-fledged recovery. If they keep making statements out loud with too much focus on the exit strategy, it may make the market a bit wary." EXIT STRATEGY GAVIN FRIEND, STRATEGIST, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK On exit strategy implementation once recovery assured: "In the last two or three weeks there's been a bit of a reality check (on recovery prospects) and it's perfectly sensible for leaders to state that idea".
Demonstrators shout slogans against China outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney July 8, 2009. Sydney's Uighur community and their supporters gathered outside the Chinese consulate on Wednesday to protest against the ...
Climate change
