G8 Ministers Endorse Greenhouse Gas Cuts by 2050

The G8 leadership has used very careful language in the statement. They have expressed ‘political will’ to cut green house gases but have not vowed anything concrete. This is what has been happening over the years, right from the days of Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Talks have been converted to action on very rare occasions. To some extent, it is understandable as we know that bulk of the pollution is caused by the industry which is directly related to the national economy in any country. So in case the economy gets affected and the general population suffers, the political leadership is bound to be overthrown. That is why the so called ‘political will’ has remained only in papers so far as a politician’s vision is myopic in most of the cases. The earth’s temperature has increases by 0.74 ± 0.18 °C over the last hundred years. So this target of 2050 may actually be too late and all the icebergs might melt even before that! This initiative is heartening, but let’s hopes that they stick to their words and the developing nations also follow suit. After all, disaster doesn’t recognize boundaries!

Here is the complete news from Yahoo! :

Environment chiefs from the world’s top industrial countries pledged “strong political will” Monday toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming.

The statement by ministers from the Group of Eight nations, however, stopped short of pledging firm commitments for mid-century or a midterm goal for 2020, which many countries argue are crucial to saving the planet from environmental crisis provoked by rising temperatures.

Aimed at setting the stage for decisive action at the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, in July, the joint communique also recognized rich nations’ obligation to provide technology and financing to help developing countries fight global warming.

“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,” said Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita. “Advanced nations should show leadership to reach this goal.”

The 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 increasing greenhouse gas emissions to work to curb the rate of increase.

The ministers, however, made no mention of a scientific recommendation that rich countries make reductions of between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of warming. European nations, the U.N. climate chief and environmentalists had clamored in Kobe for progress toward such a reduction pledge by G8 countries, arguing that failure could endanger U.N.-led talks aimed at concluding a new climate change pact by the end of 2009.

“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. Still, he conceded that ministers in Kobe had “made a step here today — a small one, but an important one.”

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

Kamoshita and Scott Fulton, deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, argued that it was premature for them to set midterm targets, and they said such commitments should be the result of negotiations leading to the climate pact in 2009.

“At this point, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for us to cite specific figures,” Kamoshita said.

The United States is the only major industrialized country not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol global warming pact, which commits 37 nations to cutting emissions by an average of 5 percent 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.

During a news conference after the concluding meeting of ministers from the G8 nations — the U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia and France — divisions were apparent between Germany and the United States.

Machnig forcefully described Germany’s commitment to cutting gases by 40 percent by 2020, several times turning in Fulton’s direction as he spoke.

Fulton, who also called for commitments from heavily polluting emerging economies, defended U.S. action on climate change, citing billions of dollars spent on research into global warming and other anti-warming steps.

“We’ve not been sitting on our hands by any means,” he said.