After a stand-off lasting six years, Europe appears to have persuaded the US to re-engage with the world to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
In a joint statement from the meeting of G8 industrialised nations in Heiligendamm, Germany, world leaders agree on the need for 鈥渟ubstantial global emissions reductions鈥� to fight climate change. . You can find a draft version of the statement, with the US鈥檚 comments .
In a single reference to specific targets, George W. Bush commits the US to 鈥渃onsider seriously鈥� matching pledges by the European Union, Japan and Canada to cut emissions by at least 50% by 2050.
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But the declaration is much vaguer on the near-term targets needed after the Kyoto protocol lapses in 2012. It says: 鈥淲e agree on the need for frameworks that will accelerate action over the next decade.鈥� However, an EU proposal for 20% emissions cut by 2020 has been left out.
鈥淎ppropriate forum鈥�
The G8 nations represent 13% of the world鈥檚 population, but are responsible for 43% of greenhouse-gas emissions. The US reiterates that it would not accept national targets until major industrialising nations like China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa agree to their own emissions limits 鈥� something China rejected only days ago.
But Bush has backed off his pre-summit suggestion that future negotiations should take place outside the United Nations framework. The statement 鈥渁cknowledges that the UN climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiations,鈥� says the UN鈥檚 chief negotiator, Yvo de Boer.
The call for agreement on a successor to the Kyoto protocol to be completed by 2009, would 鈥渞e-energise鈥� UN talks, he says, which stalled last December in Nairobi, Kenya. They resume in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007.
鈥淭his is a breakthrough,鈥� de Boer says, 鈥渁nd will send important signals on the readiness of industrialised nations and emerging economies to act.鈥�
Clean tech vital
女生小视频s agree. 鈥淚t is a positive step that has acknowledged that the UN is the way forward,鈥� says Phil Jones, director of climate research at the University of East Anglia, UK. He also supports the leaders鈥� commitment to more research and development into clean technologies.
鈥淭echnology is a key to mastering climate change,鈥� the joint communiqu茅 says. It stresses the importance of 鈥渃reating supportive market conditions to accelerate commercialisation鈥� of climate-friendly energy technologies. One of the changes in the US stance is its apparent acceptance that national targets are a way to do that.
But some environmentalists say that, in practical terms, the statement hardly differs from the text of the 1992 UN climate change convention , five years before the Kyoto protocol.
That committed the US to acting to prevent 鈥渄angerous climate change鈥�, but without specific targets.
Greenpeace has taken the toughest line in Germany: 鈥淎n agreement without targets is barely worth the paper it is written on.鈥�
