Earth Equity News

G8 Ministers Fail to Provide Hoped-For Breakthrough on 2020 Target. By Joseph Coleman, AP, May 26, 2008. "Under pressure to boost talks on a new global warming pact, [the] Group of Eight environment ministers on Monday endorsed slashing greenhouse gas emissions in half by mid-century, but failed to agree on much more contentious near-term targets. The three-day meeting in Kobe was dominated by calls from the U.N., European countries and developing nations to move forward on setting [2020 emissions] targets... But the ministers from the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, Italy and Russia, in a carefully worded statement, mentioned only the need to set such targets eventually. That frustrated environmentalists and some European ministers. 'From a scientific point of view, we need a clear reduction target, because the next 20 years are very vital, very important for climate change and the decisions we make in this process,' said Matthias Machnig, Germany's state minister for environment. The Kobe meeting was meant to set the stage for the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, in July... 'Kobe gave ministers the opportunity to accelerate the slow progress of G8 climate negotiations, but they failed to send a signal of hope for a breakthrough' at the July summit, said Naoyuki Yamagishi, head of the Climate Change Program at WWF Japan."