Climate
Activists Slam ‘Pathetic’ Statement,
EU Welcomes It
Toyako (Japan):
G8 nations, papering over deep differences on
how to set goals to combat global warming, said
on Tuesday they would work towards a target of
at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
with other participants in UN talks.
In a communique released during
a summit in northern Japan, the Group of Eight
leaders agreed that they would need to set mid-term
goals to achieve the “shared vision”
for 2050, but gave no numerical targets.The European
Union’s executive welcomed the communique,
saying it kept negotiations on track for a global
deal in 2009.
“This is a strong signal
to citizens around the world,” European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said,
adding that the EU’s benchmark for success
had been achieved.But critics outside the rich
nations’ club slammed the deal.
Environmental campaign group
WWF said the leaders had ducked their responsibilities.“The
G8 are responsible for 62% of the carbon dioxide
accumulated in the Earth’s atmosphere, which
makes them the main culprit of climate change
and the biggest part of the problem,” the
WWF said shortly after the communiqué was
issued. “WWF finds it pathetic that they
still duck their historic responsibility…,”
the campaign group said in a statement.
Last year, the G8-Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany,
France, Italy, Russia and the United States agreed
to “seriously consider” a goal of
halving global emissions by mid-century. The European
Union and Japan had been pressing for this year’s
summit to go beyond that, and Brussels wanted
clear interim targets as well.
But US president George Bush
has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding
targets unless big polluters such as China and
India rein in the emissions as well. South Africa
environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said
he feared this year’s communiqué
was actually a set backward.
“While the statement may
appear as a movement forward, we are concerned
that it may, in effect, be a regression from what
is required to make a meaningful contribution
to meeting the challenges of climate change,”
van Schalkwyk said. The statement puts the focus
of fighting global warming on UN-led talks to
create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol
expires in 2012. The UN talks are set to conclude
in Copenhagen in December 2009. Global warming
ties into other big themes such as soaring food
and fuel prices being discussed at the three-day
summit at a plush mountain-top hotel on the northern
Japanese island of Hokkaisdo, where 21,000 police
have been mobilized. In another statement, the
leaders expressed strong concern about sky-high
food and oil prices, which they said posed risks
for a global economy under serious financial strain
Source:
The Times of India, July 09, 2008