G8 Countries Have Failed Climate Change Fight
Posted on: Thursday, 3 July 2008, 15:55 CDT
A new study published on Thursday found that none of the G8 countries have come even close to fulfilling their pledges to fight climate change.
The environmental group WWF and Allianz compiled the "G8 Climate Scorecards" which said even Britain, France and Germany at the top of the rankings had all failed abysmally to implement measures to back the goals of cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
"We're not going to be able to fathom what the world may be like in 20 years if we aren't able to reduce emissions," said Regine Guenther, head of climate policy at the WWF in Germany.
"None of the eight leading industrial nations have taken sufficient measures needed to be considered in line with the target to limit a worldwide increase in temperatures to 2 degrees centigrade," said Niklas Hoehne, the author of the study done by ECOFYS research group for WWF and Allianz.
Leaders of the G8 countries have talked about cutting emissions but largely failed to follow through.
Next week, the G8 leaders from the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia will meet in the Japanese resort of Hokkaido for their annual summit. The top issue on their agenda will be climate change.
They agreed to seriously consider a goal of halving global emissions by 2050 at last years summit in Germany.
All eight countries have failed to match their words and deeds according to the scorecards.
The study included examining the climate performance by federal governments in implementing measures to reduce their emissions, and also performances in energy efficiency, renewables and carbon market development.
United States, Canada and Russia ranked at the bottom of the list saying they had "failed the test".
"The United States scores the worst of all G8 countries, being the highest emitter with the highest per capita emissions and an increasing trend in total emissions," the report said, giving the U.S. "red" ratings in 11 of the 12 categories.
"Canada is second with a very high per capita emissions and a steadily increasing trend in total emissions," it said.
"Russia ranks a bit better due to declining emissions in the early 1990s ... but since 1999 emissions are increasing steadily and there is hardly any policy in place to curb emissions."
Italy and Japan were given "red" overall ratings also. Emissions from both are well above their Kyoto Protocol targets and there are few national measures in place to cut emissions.
Britain, France and Germany were given "yellow" overall ratings.
Britain was criticized for deriving only a small share of its power from renewable sources, but was lauded for getting its emissions under the Kyoto target.
France was also lauded for getting its emissions under the Kyoto target and got plus points for its low emission rates, due to the high share of nuclear energy. But it was criticized for projections that emissions will rise if no policy changes made.
Germany was ranked third because it was faulted for high emissions from coal-powered plants and transport. Its decline in emissions is due mainly to the collapse of east German industry.
Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports
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