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World leaders open hard talks on climate change

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-10 01:35

L'AQUILA, Italy: World leaders at the Group of Eight (G8) summit started crucial talks on the global fight against climate change on Thursday, with clear differences to be bridged.

The leaders met under the format of Major Economies Forum (MEF), which brought together 17 nations including the G8 industrialized countries and five emerging economies, namely Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

U.S. President Barack Obama chaired the forum meeting, which is devoted to talks on climate and energy issues.

The meeting is considered crucial for a new global pact on climate change to be reached by the year end when world governments meet in Copenhagen, Denmark on the replacement of current Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

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But last-minute negotiations before the forum meeting failed to resolve major differences, notably between the rich countries and emerging economies, and even within the bloc of G8.

In a unified position at the forum, the G8 industrialized countries agreed on Wednesday to limit global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but watered down a target of halving greenhouse gas emission by 2050.

Scientists warned that there would be serious climate consequences if the world temperature rises more than the threshold of 2 degrees Celsius, but the United States had been reluctant to accept the 2-degree limit.

The G8 leaders said they are ready to achieve the goal of reducing global emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050, pressing others to share the burden, but they failed to specify from the level of which year the emissions should be halved.

The EU has been pushing for reduction by half from the base year of 1990, while the United States wants to use the emission level in 2005, which is higher than that in 1990, as the reference.

As part of the long-term effort, the G8 leaders also supported a goal of developed countries reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in aggregate by 80 percent or more by 2050 compared to 1990 or more recent years.

However, Russia, also a member of the G8, later said it can not accept the target for developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emission by 80 percent by 2050.

"For us the 80 percent figure is unacceptable and likely unattainable," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic aid Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters, throwing the proclaimed achievement into doubt.

In a clear showdown, the G8 leaders insisted that major emerging economies must take their responsibilities which are quantifiable.

"Major emerging economies need to undertake quantifiable actions to collectively reduce emissions significantly below business-as-usual by a specified year," the G8 leaders said in the declaration.

However, emerging economies would like to see rich countries make deeper cuts by 2020, rather than a distant target by 2050. They also want developed countries to first provide financing and technology transfer to help developing world in the fight against climate change.

"We can not be satisfied with a single long-term objective without losing all credibility," Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figuereido Machado said. "We need strong and deep reduction goals for 2020."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also sharply rebuked the G8 leaders on Thursday for failing to make more commitments to cutting emissions in the near term, saying they must do so if the heavily polluting developing world is to follow suit.

"The policies that they have stated so far are not enough, not sufficient enough," Ban said on the sidelines of the G8 summit, urging the developed countries to come forward with financing for poor nations to reduce emission and adapt to the effects of global warming.

Developing countries are seeking a commitment by rich nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in aggregate by at least 40 percent by 2020 compared to the level of 1990.

On the eve of the G8 summit, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged industrialized countries to bear up their "historical responsibility" on climate change.

"What we are witnessing today is the consequence of over two centuries of industrial activity and high consumption lifestyles in the developed world. They have to bear this historical responsibility," Singh said.