Merkel delight at climate change deal
Chancellor Angela Merkel said G8 leaders in Germany agreed today to call for "substantial cuts" to greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, hailing it as a big success on climate change.
She said a summit declaration called for cutting emissions in half by 2050 - a deal it appeared she would not reach due to persistent opposition by US President George Bush to specific, binding commitments on reductions.
However, the language of the declaration falls short of an ironclad commitment. It says the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases should "seriously consider" following the EU, Canada and Japan in seeking to cut emissions in half by 2050.
Ms Merkel, who has made climate change the centerpiece of Germany's G8 leadership, had steadily lobbied fellow leaders on climate change for months before they began arriving in Heiligendamm this week for the summit of leaders.
"No one can escape this political declaration; it is an enormous step forward," she said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked if there was "wiggle room" in the declaration.
"There isn't going to be an agreement until there's an agreement that has America and China in it," he said. "However, there is now a process to lead to that agreement and at its heart is a commitment to a substantial cut."
"What does substantial mean? That serious consideration is given to the halving of emissions by 2050," Mr Blair said.
Still, Mr Blair called the deal "a major, major step forward".
The statement also does not commit to Ms Merkel's target under which global temperatures would be allowed to increase by no more than 2C (3.6F) before being brought back down.
A May report from a UN network of more than 2,000 scientists estimated that the world must stabilise the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere within eight years to keep global temperatures from spiking to disastrous levels.
Experts have said that would require a global reduction in emissions of 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.
But Mr Bush has opposed the 50% figure and he maintains that developing nations such as China, India and Brazil must be included. He also says economic growth cannot be sacrificed for progress on climate change.
Ms Merkel said today that the "toughest point was the halving of emissions ... that was the hardest step".
But she said: "We agreed that we need reduction goals - and obligatory reduction goals."
All agreed the process should take place within the UN framework and will begin with a meeting of environment ministers at a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December, she said.
The conference will seek to come up with a successor agreement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which commits industrial countries to cut emissions by 5% below 1990 levels. The US signed the treaty but did not ratify it because it did not impose cuts on developing countries such as China and India.
The industrial powers will take on a leading role in the new talks, but developing nations will be included, Ms Merkel said.
