Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/g20/Pittsburgh_Fact_Sheet_Food_Security.pdf
THE PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: PARTNERING ON FOOD SECURITY
At the Summit in L’Aquila, Italy in July, Leaders from thirty-six countries and international
organizations committed to five principles for a food security initiative:
1) Stronger coordination among donors
2) Support of comprehensive strategies
3) Investment through country-owned plans
4) Leveraging effective multilateral institutions
5) Sustained commitments.
As part of that sustained commitment, fourteen countries and the European Commission
committed at least $20 billion over three years to agriculture development, in addition to their
assistance for emergency food aid and nutrition programs. These countries included: Australia,
Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Russia,
Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Progress Since the July L’Aquila Summit
Since the L’Aquila Summit, we have seen further progress to launch this important partnership:
New Partners: Additional countries, such as Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and
Switzerland have pledged their support for the initiative and its approach, helping to bring total
pledges towards agriculture development to $22 billion over the next three years. In addition,
other countries have pledged to provide technical assistance as part of this initiative. Some of
these countries include Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico.
G-20 Call for World Bank Food Security Trust Fund: In addition, the United States has been
working with donor partners and the World Bank since L’Aquila to develop a multi-donor trust
fund that supports the initiative, building on the success of the World Bank’s Food Crisis
Response Fund (GFRP) to finance medium- and long-term investments that boost agricultural
productivity and market access in low-income countries.
Development of Implementation Plan: On September 14th and 15th, senior technical experts
from over forty developing and developed countries, regional and international organizations
came together to begin implementing the L’Aquila commitments. This event generated
agreement on actions that we collectively need to take to help developing countries put together,
resource, and implement country-led food security strategies. Secretary Clinton and U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will take the implementation of our commitments a step further
on September 26th when they host a forum for the leaders of countries and international, public,
and private organizations to affirm our shared approach to achieving food security and outline
the key steps that we will take to realize our commitments.
Engaging the Private Sector and Philanthropy
One of the key elements of the U.S. approach to this initiative is to use development assistance to
explore synergies with private philanthropy and private sector actors. As an example, we have
been working with several foundations and businesses deeply involved in food security to see
how best to coordinate our efforts:
Gates Foundation: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has to date committed $1.4
billion as part of a new effort to boost agricultural development focused on smallholder farmers
in the developing world and another half billion dollars for nutrition-related investments largely
for children and their mothers around the globe, has strongly endorsed the new food security
initiative, and agreed to work closely with the G-20 and its partners to better align their activities
and explore areas of collaboration and partnership to maximize impact on the ground.
Rockefeller Foundation: The Rockefeller Foundation will bring over sixty years of experience
in food security and agricultural development to bear, working with us to explore how we can
take to scale successful programs on agricultural inputs and market development, and will share
with us its research and field testing on critical issues including, for example, building climate
change resilience into agricultural development programs and facilitating greater private sector
investments in agricultural development.
Hewlett Foundation: We are collaborating with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to
develop the most effective ways to integrate small holder farmers into commercial agricultural
value chains, especially along Africa’s regional infrastructure corridors. We will work with the
Hewlett Foundation and others to increase market efficiencies and reduce barriers along these
regional development corridors, through improved infrastructure and policies along these
corridors.
Rabobank Foundation: Rabobank Foundation from the Netherlands, which supports
cooperative microfinance institutions, producers organizations and local savings- and credit
cooperatives in twenty-five countries, has endorsed the new food security initiative, and agreed
to work closely with the G-20 and its partners to help us find ways to use small scale donations,
technical assistance, fair trade-financing, microfinance lending, guarantees, and other tools to
improve access to capital for small scale farmers and cooperatives.
World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum is collaborating with partners in the
L’Aquila initiative as part of a broader effort to facilitate public-private collaboration to improve
food security and sustainable agriculture. Forum partners develop and catalyze scalable business
models that contribute to sustainable food production. We will work with the Forum to harness
business expertise, in partnership with other sectors, to generate sustainable, market-based
solutions to hunger and poverty.
Initiative for Global Development: We are working with the Initiative for Global
Development (IGD), whose members comprise business leaders from the United States and
Africa, to help build market linkages that serve small producers by identifying both barriers to
agricultural development and new opportunities for investment. IGD provides a forum for
regular consultation with its members, which can facilitate private-sector participation in this
global food security initiative.
Over the next several months, we expect to work with donor and target countries, foundations
and private sector actors to further development the implementation plan for this initiative.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/g20/Pittsburgh_Fact_Sheet_Energy_Security.pdf
THE PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: ACTING ON OUR GLOBAL ENERGY AND CLIMATE
CHANGE CHALLENGES
Today the Leaders at the Pittsburgh Summit made a critical commitment to phase out inefficient fossil
fuel subsidies over the medium term while providing targeted support for the poorest. This
groundbreaking effort will encourage the conservation of energy, improve our energy security, and
provide a down-payment on our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Phase out Fossil Fuel Energy Subsidies: G-20 Leaders committed to phase out inefficient fossil fuel
subsidies over the medium term. This will improve energy security, encourage investment in clean
energy sources, promote green growth, free-up resources to use for pressing social needs such as
health, food security, and environmental protection. They recognized the importance of preventing an
adverse effect on the poorest by providing them with targeted cash transfers and other appropriate
forms of support. This reform will not apply to support for clean energy, renewables or technologies
that dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Energy Security: Cutting energy subsidies leads to reduced consumption, lower import
demand and increased availability of energy for export – all helping to reduce the likelihood of
a future supply crunch. In 2008, demand grew in countries subsidizing oil by nearly 1 million
barrels per day, despite high prices.
• Climate Change: The G-20 accounts for over 80 percent of the world’s energy use. The
OECD and IEA estimate that eliminating fossil fuel subsidies worldwide would reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent or more by 2050. Removing fossil fuel subsidies helps
eliminate market distortions, strengthening incentives for investments in energy efficient
technologies and non-fossil energy supply.
• Economic Growth: Fossil fuel subsidies displace important public investments and drain
government finances, worsen balance of payments, lead to underinvestment in infrastructure,
and can contribute to energy shortages. Twenty of the largest non-OECD governments spend
more than $300 billion in energy subsidies annually.
• Poverty Reduction: Globally, the lowest 40 percent of income earners receive only 15 to 20
percent of the benefit of energy subsidies. The poorest households often lack access to modern
energy services and when they do have access their consumption is so small that many
subsidies offer little economic benefit to them. Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and using
those freed resources for targeted social assistance could significantly improve the quality of
life of low-income households.
• Health and Environment: Phasing out the subsidies that contribute to unsustainable use of
fossil fuels in tandem with international efforts to expand access to modern energy services will
make a substantial contribution to the reduction of air pollution and help save lives.
• Demonstrating Success: After years of increasing fuel subsidies and problems implementing
price hikes, Indonesia instituted a cash transfer system that enabled the government to direct
cash payments to over 19 million households while reducing across-the-board subsidies. This
action improved the national balance sheet while also enhancing the economic condition of the
poorest 40 percent of the country’s population.
Increase Oil Market Transparency and Oversight: The G-20 committed to improving the
functioning of oil markets through increased reporting of oil production, consumption, and stock data
and better oversight of oil commodity futures markets. Timely and accurate data make markets more
efficient and help avoid excessive volatility by reducing uncertainty of supply and demand trends. G-
20 countries agreed to swiftly implement recommendations by the International Organization of
Securities Commissions to improve oil market regulation and to take further steps to oversee related
over-the-counter markets.
Boost Investments in Clean Technologies and Climate Change: The G-20 is committed to a
resilient, sustainable and green recovery. It underscored its resolve to take strong action to address the
threat of dangerous climate change and committed to intensify its efforts to a successful outcome of the
UN climate conference in Copenhagen. G-20 Leaders called on their finance ministers to report back
at their next meeting with a range of possible options for climate change financing, and to make those
options available as a resource in the UNFCCC negotiations.
These efforts build on a number of successful initiatives undertaken by the international community
and the United States this past year, including:
The Major Economies Forum (MEF): President Obama launched the MEF in April 2009, creating a
new dialogue among developed and emerging economies to combat climate change and promote clean
energy. At the July L’Aquila summit, MEF Leaders announced important new agreements to support
the UN climate talks and launched a new Global Partnership to promote clean energy technologies.
Bilateral Climate Partnerships: The United States is accelerating its collaboration with China, India,
Mexico and other key international partners to combat climate change, coordinate clean energy
research and development, and support the international climate talks.
Taking Action at Home: The United States is investing $80+ billion in clean energy through its
Recovery Act. President Obama announced the first ever joint fuel economy/carbon dioxide tailpipe
standards for cars and trucks in May. The United States House of Representatives has passed a
comprehensive energy and climate bill that would promote clean energy investments and lower U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions more than 80 percent by 2050.