A coalition of about 30 U.S. development and environmental NGOs called on President Bush today to stop standing in the way of a landmark deal on climate change at the upcoming G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.The coalition, which includes Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth U.S., Oxfam America, the Sierra Club, Action Aid USA and many others, argued that U.S. intransigence is an obstacle to international efforts to avoid dangerous climate change and a threat to global efforts to fight poverty.

In an open letter to President Bush, the coalition argued that: “Over the past century, the United States and other wealthy countries have been and continue to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

With only five percent of the world’s population, the United States emits about 25 percent of greenhouse gases generated by human activity. Over the course of history, its responsibility is even greater. The G8 nations, which have emitted the greatest volume of greenhouse gases, have a unique responsibility to take action now not only to reduce their contributions to global warming, but also to provide assistance to help address the consequences that developing countries are increasingly facing.”

Among other things, the coalition argued that: “The world’s wealthiest countries should end domestic and international subsidies to oil and other fossil fuels and support the development of sustainable energy alternatives in developing countries.”

The coalition also argued that roughly $50 billion dollars a year would be needed to help developing countries deal with the impacts of global warming if action is not taken immediately, and that those most responsible creating the problem, such as the United States, should take responsibility for providing these funds.

A statement released June 1 by the US Government Accountability Office (the “investigative” arm of Congress), finds that “the US federal government receives one of the lowest government takes [from oil and gas development] in the world.”The testimony, delivered to Congress on May 1 but only publicly released last Friday, indicates that while there are trade-offs between increasing the royalty rates paid by oil companies and attracting investment, raising rates on future federal oil and gas leases would likely increase the government’s revenue from these projects.

The GAO statement feeds into ongoing Congressional debate around increasing the rate of return for the government on oil and gas projects and is another reminder of the give-aways that continuing to be provided oil giants like BP and ConocoPhillips, at the expense of the American tax-payers.

Saturday, June 2: G8 leaders won’t arrive for several days, but the demonstrations in Germany have already begun. I’m just back from today’s march, which started in a few different locations throughout city of Rostock, Gemany, and then converged at the fair grounds near the city’s harbor. The Police have apparently claimed that there were about 25,000 people here today, but even a casual observer could have seen that there were far more (the organizers argue that about 80,000 people turned out).It was an extremely diverse group of protesters, all sharing a common concern that the world is moving in the wrong direction and that G8 leaders aren’t doing enough about it. Judging by the banners and signs, the issues of climate change, war, corporate greed, global poverty and external debt brought most people to Rostock today. Oil Change International is here because in one way or another oil plays a big role in all of these problems.

The march itself was overwhelmingly peaceful. Unfortunately, after people had converged on the fair grounds for the post-march rally and concert, a clash between a small group of protesters and the police erupted. It is hard to know exactly how it started. On the one hand, the police had agreed to stay out of the fair grounds and at some stage they swarmed in in riot gear and started attacking protesters. On the other hand, a small group of people may have been throwing things at the police from the fair grounds thereby triggering the riot squad’s invasion. The whole skirmish with police was only taking up about 20 percent of the area and the overwhelming majority of the people were on the other side of the field carrying on peacefully and uninterrupted. Nevertheless, the violence has over-shadowed the reasons why most people turned up here today. Lets hope we can turn that around in the coming days.