By KUNA,
Toyako, Japan : The leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) agreed Tuesday to set a global target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, but made little headway with a long-term target.
The G-8 will “seek to share the vision of achieving at least a 50 percent reduction of global emissions by 2050 and to “consider and adopt” the goal in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the US said in a statement issued during their session on climate change at their annual summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The G-8 agreed to “consider seriously” the same target at last year’s summit in Germany.
Japan has been desperate to achieve progress on finding a consensus on a new international framework beyond the 2012 expiration of the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol that goes beyond last year’s agreement, but the US has been reluctant to set such a target, insisting that major emitters like China and India should be part of any reduction framework.
“We agreed that the long-term target will become the correct and essential goal for the whole world,” Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is hosting the G-8 summit, told reporters after the session.
“We have firmed the foundation for the next step and we must unite to get developing and emerging nations to join,” Fukuda said, stressing the need to build an international framework in which all countries will participate.
“We cannot achieve the long-term goal without contributions from other major emitters,” Fukuda said, referring to China and India.
At the session, the world powers acknowledged their leadership role and vowed to implement “ambitious economy-wide mid-term goals” in order to achieve absolute emissions reductions, and first stop the growth of emissions as soon as possible, reflecting comparable efforts among all developed economies.
“Developing countries’ efforts to put in place appropriate national mitigation and adaptation plans to build low carbon, climate resilient economies, should be supported by scaled up assistance from developed countries,” the leaders said.
To accelerate joint efforts, the G-8 agreed to establish a fund to invest in research and development of innovative technologies for the environment, with a target of around USD 10 billion annually.
The leaders recognized Japan’s proposed sectoral approaches as useful tools, among others, for achieving national emission reduction objectives, which involves separate reduction targets for each industry, and agreed to help developing nations mitigate the impact of global warming.
Tuesday’s discussions also cover surging oil and food prices, world economy, aid to African nations, and global political issues such as the Middle East peace process and dossiers involving Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan.