G8 fails to agree main climate change target

The G8 countries failed to agree a deal with developing nations over the goal of halving carbon emissions by 2050 today.

Negotiators were trying instead to achieve the more modest target of keeping the world’s average temperature from rising more than 2C, sources said.

Climate change experts say the two-degree threshold, which has been embraced by the European Union and some developing countries, would not eliminate the risk of runaway climate change but would minimise it.

The G-8 opened with the leaders of the United States, Britain France, Italy, Germany and Japan discussing a host of issues, from climate change to North Korean nuclear non-proliferation.

They will be joined tomorrow for a deeper discussion on climate change with the 17-member Major Economies Forum, which includes China, which has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest polluter, and India, which is close behind. Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea and the European Union also are in that club of the world’s major polluters.

The climate discussions come ahead of a crucial December summit in Copenhagen where the United Nations aims to conclude a new, worldwide climate pact.

Emerging countries have been upset that the industrialised G8 has not been forthcoming on pledges of financing and transferring technology to the developing world, and are refusing to commit to specific targets.

A panel of UN scientists has said industrial countries must together cut carbon emissions by 25% to 40% from 1990 levels by 2020 to keep average global temperatures from rising more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels 150 years ago.

At their last summit in Japan a year ago, the G8 committed to reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2050. But the vague statement did not specify which year it would take as a base line. UN scientists have used 1990 as the starting point, but the United States and Japan are using 2005 levels.

The difference is significant: Since 1990, US emissions have risen 23% and disagreement over which start date persists