• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

G8: Bush Pressured To Commit To Emissions Reductions

Posted on: Monday, 7 July 2008, 16:07 CDT

With climate change at the top of the agenda for the G8 nations meeting on the Japanese island of Hokkaido this week, the European Union and environmental groups are putting pressure on the Bush administration today in hopes of getting the U.S. to agree to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century and back the need for rich countries to set 2020 goals as well.

Green groups fear that the summit, which lasts from Monday until Wednesday, will end without a firm commitment to slash emissions by 2050.

The so-called Major Economies Meeting will bring leaders from large nations such as China, India, Brazil and Australia together to discuss climate change with G8 leaders.

"So far we have seen progress, difficult progress but progress," said a EU source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This year's G8 meeting would be considered a failure by Brussels if there was no agreement to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2050, the EU source said, adding that there was already common ground on other issues such as use of market mechanisms, including emissions trading as "the way to go and I think that is quite useful and it has been signed up by all the G8 members."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the meeting would be a success if there was agreement on a clear-cut 50 percent reduction by 2050.

"If we agree among ourselves (in the G8), then we are in a much better position for discussions with our Chinese partners and others," Barroso said.

Both China and India have refused to commit to a fixed target to curb emissions unless rich nations, like the U.S., do so as well. Both countries’ economies produce about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.

President George W. Bush has refused to back any fixed numerical targets to cut emissions unless developing nations agree to binding commitments to curb their carbon pollution.

The G8 emits about 40 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution, about half of that alone coming from the United States.

At the G8 summit in Germany last year, leaders agreed to "seriously consider" cuts of "at least" 50 percent by 2050. However, most green groups aren’t hopeful that Bush will make any serious change in U.S. policy regarding climate change.

"It will not be good, it will not be enough if the G8 countries just decide to reduce by 50 percent in 2050. They must state 'at least', and they must say something that urges them to take action before 2050," Kim Carstensen of global environment group WWF told reporters in Hokkaido.

"We should definitely look for wording around a mid-term target. A mid-term target would be in 2020, which should be in a range of 25-40 percent reductions for industrialized countries," said Carstensen, director of WWF's Global Climate Initiative, referring to the U.N. climate panel's goal for rich nations.

Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace said that a commitment to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2050 would be “a false answer.”

“If there is no 'at least' in there it means the governments commit themselves to not doing enough," he added.

James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the administration would give “serious consideration to 50 by 50.”

"We need to understand that a ton reduced in China is the same ton as a ton reduced in Japan as a ton reduced in America, and right now in a number of areas we don't have that confidence," he said.

---

On the Net:

European Union

White House Council on Environmental Quality

G8 Hokkaido Summit

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category