G8 summit in Japan - Leaders take soft option

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations — comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US — have taken the soft option by agreeing to a 50% cut in the current level of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Rather than setting a short-term target that would require prompt action they have set a distant goal for which all of them will, ultimately, be able to duck responsibility. There are no suggestions on how the target should be achieved. None of the leaders will be in power by 2050 to answer for the latest decision.

The G8, which accounts for 62% of the carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, has called on developing nations like China and India to follow suit. They are the world’s fastest growing economies and most populous countries. No agreement is workable without their participation.

The agreed cutback is a cosmetic exercise to give the appearance that something has been achieved, while the important decisions have merely been postponed as the G8 essentially moved the goalposts.

The emission cuts agreed relate to current levels, not 1990 levels on which previous cuts were agreed. Some scientists have been arguing for a much more drastic cutback.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has called the latest announcement a “strong signal” and a “new shared vision”. It is neither.

It’s a cop-out because their vision is carefully shrouded in the mists of time.