Emissions: 50% cut by 2050, but no near-term plan

THE Group of Eight leading industrial nations yesterday 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 G8 countries — the US, Japan, Russia, France, Germany, Britain, Canada and Italy — also called on all leading economies 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 G8 said in a joint, five-page communiqué on climate.

The G8 last year at a summit in Germany 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 G8 has been under pressure to secure commitments by wealthy nations to push forward stalled UN-led talks on forging a new accord to battle global warming by the end of next year. The new accord would succeed the troubled Kyoto protocol when its first phase expires in 2012.

The US hailed yesterday’s agreement as substantial progress, and a top EU official called it a “new, shared vision” by wealthy nations on climate.

Yesterday’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 G8 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 of the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Climate Initiative.

Environmentalists have clamoured for ambitious targets for countries to cut emissions by 2020.

“To be meaningful and credible, a long-term goal must have a base year, it must be underpinned by ambitious mid-term targets and actions,” said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African minister of environmental affairs.

“As it is expressed in the G8 statement, the long-term goal is an empty slogan.” Shorter-term targets have been much more difficult to agree on, since they would require nations to act more quickly. The US, for instance, has argued that meeting a Europe-supported goal of reducing emissions by between 25- 40% by 2020 is unrealistic.

In a nod to such disagreements, Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, the summit host, said the G8 countries would set individual targets, and he did not mention a range.

“The G8 will implement aggressive mid-term total emission reduction targets on a country by country basis,” he said.

The agreement also urged nations to set high goals for energy efficiency, promote clean energy and technologies, and mobilise financing to help poor nations cut their emissions and grapple with the effects of warming.

Scientists say urgent action is needed to make greenhouse gas emissions fall after peaking within the next 15 years, to limit the increase in global temperatures to under 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures beyond that could trigger the worst effects of warming, such as melting ice sheets and extreme weather.