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G-8 Agrees On Plan To Halve Global Emissions By 2050

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 July 2008, 19:25 CDT

World leaders on Tuesday took a step toward battling global warming by endorsing a plan to halve world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

The United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy make up the Group of Eight leading industrial nations who also called on all major economies to join together to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.

"This global challenge can only be met by a global response, in particular, by the contributions from all major economies," the G-8 said in a joint, five-page communiqué.

At a summit in Germany last year, the G-8 pledged to consider the 2050 target, and this year's Japanese hosts had hoped to solidify that commitment at the meeting in Toyako, northern Japan.

The pressure to secure commitments by wealthy nations to push forward stalled U.N.-led talks on forging a new accord to battle global warming by the end of next year has been the major concern of the G-8 group.

The new accord would succeed the troubled Kyoto Protocol when its first phase expires in 2012.

Developing countries such as China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa have stated they are looking to the G-8 to set the example and provide more aid to the developing world to help it cope with climate change.

“The industrial nations must lead because they have the economic strength to adopt sweeping changes,” said Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Such developing countries have called on the G-8 countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45 percent by 2012, compared with their 1990 levels, and by up to 95 percent by 2050.

Still, some critics attacked Tuesday’s statement for failing to go much beyond the G-8 statement last year. The current statement addressed total world emissions rather than just those produced by wealthy countries.

A base year for when emissions would be cut was not set by the new communiqué.

"It falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change," said Kim Carstensen, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Initiative.

Environmentalists have clamored for ambitious targets for countries to cut emissions by 2020, arguing that the 50 percent reduction target is insufficient.

The Japanese have set a national target for cutting emissions by between 60 percent and 80 percent by 2050, but has not set a midterm goal.

"To be meaningful and credible, a long term goal must have a base year, it must be underpinned by ambitious midterm targets and actions," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

He added: "As it is expressed in the G8 statement, the long term goal is an empty slogan."

Setting short-term targets has been one of the bigger environmental concerns. The United States, for instance, has argued that meeting a Europe-supported goal of reducing emissions by between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 is unrealistic.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda - the summit host - said the G-8 countries would set individual targets, and he did not mention a range.

"The G-8 will implement aggressive midterm total emission reduction targets on a country-by-country basis," he said.

The White House quickly hailed the agreement as validation of Bush's global warming policy.

“The G-8 urged contributions from all major economies—a position Bush has argued repeatedly,” said Dan Price, the president's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

Nations were asked to set high goals for energy efficiency, promote clean energy and technologies and mobilize financing to help poor nations cut their own emissions and grapple with the effects of warming.

Climate talks led by the U.N. alone have experienced divisive opinions.

Quickly developing nations have urged wealthy countries to take the first, toughest steps. The United States, Japan and others, meanwhile, say they want to hear what up-and-coming economies like China are willing to do.

“The agreement constitutes a new, shared vision by the major economies that would support the U.N.-led effort on a new global warming accord,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

"This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," he said in a statement, calling for a renewed push behind the U.N. talks, which aim to conclude a new pact at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.

Other world leaders are calling it a “major step forward" from the climate deal reached in Germany.

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On the Net:

G8 Hokkaido Summit

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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