Business Leaders Call for 50% Emissions Reduction

A group of business leaders said Friday that the world’s developed countries should take the lead in the battle against global warming and push for halving global emissions of greenhouse gasses by 2050.

The World Economic Forum, in proposals presented to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, also urged the Group of Eight countries to set nearer-term reduction goals.

"Nothing less than a rapid and fundamental strategy to reach a low-carbon world economy is needed," said the proposal, which was back by 99 CEO’s of global companies.

The group also said that while the world’s richest countries should take the lead, emerging economies such as China and India will also have to be part of the reduction strategy in the long-term.

The proposal said, "those countries who are currently developing fast will not be able to avoid their future responsibilities." 

By 2050, Japan has pledged to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gasses by between 60 percent and 80 percent. 

There was "strong political will" to set the 50 percent reduction target for 2050 at the upcoming G-8 summit, according to a statement made by the G-8 environment ministers after a meeting in Japan.

Many support a goal of reductions between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020, but the U.S. government considers that to be unrealistic.

The group also called for the setting of an interim "milestone" as part of a new international global warming pact scheduled to be completed in 2009, but mentioned a more modest range of cuts between 14 percent and 35 percent by 2030.

"The new framework should construct an ambitious, but achievable, emissions reduction strategy for the short to medium-term," the business group said.

They also called for encouragement of all clean technologies, long-term policies to provide a stable investment climate, and products and services to adapt to changes caused by rising temperatures.