At the G-8 Summit: Disagreement on How to Address Global Warming
Today the leaders of the world's biggest economies, who have gathered at the G-8 summit, said that they would fight global warming, but couldn't agree how, in a sign of the difficulty of managing an increasingly diverse and polarized world.
Poorer nations said they wouldn't sign up to greenhouse-gas reduction targets until richer ones did more – while the richer countries will only commit to more when the developing world signs up for targets.
The leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations, plus others including the biggest developing economies, agreed to "to combat climate change in accordance with common but differentiated responsibilities." But the statement – on the final day of the annual G-8 summit, which has focused on the environment – contained no jointly agreed numerical targets for reducing emissions that contribute to global warming.
The previous day, the G-8 had committed to share with other countries "the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050." That implied the participation of some of the world's biggest polluters who are outside the G-8. But on Wednesday, of the non-G-8 countries present, only Australia, Indonesia and South Korea embraced the target.
The so-called Group of Five developing nations – China, India South Africa, Brazil and Mexico – declined to endorse the G-8 target. On Tuesday they had issued a statement demanding that developed countries to pledge to cut emissions by 25% to 40% by 2020 and 80% to 95% by 2050. But when leaders of both groups got together Wednesday morning, they didn't even discuss these figures.
"Nobody referred to this demand" by the G-5, said Kazuo Kodama, press secretary of Japan's foreign ministry. "The biggest progress to date is the G-8 members' embracing a long-term goal."
Source: Source: WSJ | Published on July 9, 2008
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