By SPA,
Toyako, Japan : President George W. Bush on Wednesday hailed the move by G-8 leaders to coalesce behind a broad climate-change strategy, saying in a valedictory to summitry that “significant progress” has been made on global warming.
“In order to address climate change, all major economies must be at the table, and that’s what took place today,” Bush said at the conclusion of the summit of leading industrialized nations — talks that he said also strove to advance free trade and combat hunger and disease around the world, particularly in Africa.
In a statement that he read to reporters here, he also reiterated his position that substantive progress in the climate change area will necessarily hinge on further development of clean energy technology. Developing nations, he said, will need assistance so they can become “good stewards of the environment.”
The president praised his fellow summit leaders for their work, not only on climate change but also on advancing theDoha Round of negotiations on opening markets to free trade and on their cooperation with U.S. efforts to help poor nations combat disease and food shortages, according to a report of the Associated Press.
The G-8 nations are the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia.