Earth Equity News

G-8 Leaders Shelve Short-Term Emissions Target. By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Alan Cowell. NYTimes, July 8, 2008. "Pledging to 'move toward a low-carbon society,' leaders of the world's richest nations on Tuesday endorsed the idea of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, but refused to set a short-term target for reducing the gases that scientists agree are warming the planet. The declaration... came under intense criticism from environmentalists, who called it a missed opportunity and said it ignores the urgent need to cut emissions more rapidly. But European leaders, who have long pressed President Bush to adopt a more aggressive stance on climate change, said they were pleased with the agreement, and cast it as an important step toward setting the groundwork for a binding international treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen in 2009... The climate change document was among a series of communiqués the Group of Eight leaders issued Tuesday, the second day of their three-day gathering on the mountainous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. In addition to global warming, they tackled food security, the global economy and aid to Africa... Phil Clapp, an expert in climate change at the Pew Environmental Group who is here monitoring the talks, said the leaders had significantly weakened language they adopted last year at Heiligendamm. Mr. Clapp said, because it aims to reduce emissions from current levels rather than 1990 levels, as the leaders proposed last year. He added, 'The science shows that we have to reduce 80 to 90 percent from current levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change'... The feelings of advocates were perhaps best summed up in a full page advertisement in Tuesday's Financial Times placed by Avaaz.Org, a progressive advocacy group. The ad showed the faces of Mr. Fukuda, President Bush and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada pasted onto the well-known Japanese cartoon characters called Hello Kitty. 'Hello Kiddies,' the headline read. 'Be a Grown-Up. Set 2020 climate targets now.' On Wednesday, the Group of Eight will take up the climate control issue again, this time with the so-called "Outreach Five" leaders of developing nations, including China and India."