G-8 vow to halve emissions by ’50

The Asian Age , Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Correspondent : JOSEPH COLEMAN
July 8: Leading industrial nations on Tuesday endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, edging forward in the battle against global warming but stopping short of tough, nearer-term targets.

The Group of Eight countries, the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy, also called on all major countries such as China and India to join in the effort 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 on climate. The G-8 in 2007 at a summit in Germany pledged to seriously consider the same target, and this year’s Japanese hosts had hoped to solidify that commitment at the current meeting in Toyako, northern Japan.

The G-8 has been under pressure to voice commitments by wealthy nations to push forward stalled UN-led talks on forging a new accord to battle global warming by the end of 2009 to succeed the troubled Kyoto Protocol when its first phase expires in 2012. The United States hailed the agreement as substantial progress, and a top European Union official called it a "new, shared vision" by wealthy nations on climate.

Tuesday’s statement, however, addressed total world emissions rather than just those produced by wealthy countries, and critics attacked it for failing to go much beyond the G-8 statement last year. The communiqué also did not set a base year from which emissions would be cut. "So little progress after a whole year of minister meetings and negotiations is not only a wasted opportunity, it falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change," said Kim Carstensen, director WWF Global Climate Initiative.

 
SOURCE : The Asian Age, Wednesday, 09 July 2008
 


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