G8 ministers aim for 50% greenhouse gas cuts

Environment ministers from top industrial countries today called for an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming.

The Group of Eight nations, aiming at preparing for action on climate change at the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan in July, also acknowledged calls for mid-term emissions reduction targets for 2020.

The three day meetings of G8 ministers – from Japan, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Britain and Russia – and observer countries in Kobe, Japan, also strove to revive momentum for wider UN-led talks on a new global warming pact.

“The major outcome was on climate change: We strongly expressed the will to come to agreement at Toyako so we can halve emissions by 2050,” Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita said. “Advanced nations should show leadership to reach this goal.”

A statement cited the need for global gas emissions to peak within the next 10 to 20 years, and it called on developing countries with rapidly expanding greenhouse gas emissions to work to curb the rate of increase.

While signalling the need for midterm targets, the ministers made only an indirect mention of a UN scientific finding that rich countries should make reductions of between 25% and 40% by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of warming.

“The need was expressed for effective midterm targets which take into account the findings of the IPCC,” the statement said, referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

European nations, the UN climate chief and environmentalists had clamoured in Kobe for progress toward such a reduction pledge by G8 countries, arguing that failure could endanger the UN talks, which face a December 2009 deadline.

“Without a mandatory midterm target for developing countries, it will be very difficult to get agreement” by that deadline, said Matthias Machnig, the delegate from Germany.

The European Union has pledged a 20% emissions reduction by 2020 and has offered to raise it to 30% if other nations sign on. The US, however, has not committed to a mid-term goal, demanding commitments from top developing countries such as China first. Japan has also not yet set a 2020 target.

The US is the only major industrialised country not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol global warming pact, which commits 37 nations to cutting emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. Washington has argued that the pact would hurt its economy and is unfair because it does not obligate developing nations to also cut emissions.

The meeting took place amid fears by some that the momentum was draining from the UN-led talks on a new climate pact to take over when Kyoto’s first phase expires in 2012. The talks have struggled to overcome divisions between rich countries concerned about growing emissions in the developing world, and poorer nations who argue industrialised countries must take the first steps to address warming.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said rich nations needed to set national targets - in addition to global goals – as a clear signal to businesses.

“If you’re a businessman or woman in any country of the world and you’re about to build a 500 million dollar power plant, then a global goal doesn’t tell you what investment choice to make,” he said. “But if you know the country that you’re in plans to reduce emissions by ’X’% by 2020, you’re going to want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”