http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/science/earth/10climate.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Emerging Nations Join G-8 on Climate Goal
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press
[Zeppnote: this leaves Putsch looking frantically for a new excuse to
ignore the accord altogether. He was counting on China and India not
signing on]
President Bush posed Tuesday with other leaders at the Group of 8
meeting in Rusutsu, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Article Tools Sponsored By
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: July 10, 2008
RUSUTSU, Japan — Calling climate change “one of the great global
challenges of our time,” the world’s richest nations and emerging
powers joined together Wednesday for the first time to commit
themselves to long-range cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions, but
were split on how to achieve that goal.
At the G-8 meeting, from left: Silvio Berlusconi, Stephen Harper,
Dimitri A. Medvedev, President Bush, Yasuo Fukuda, Nicolas Sarkozy,
Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and José Manuel Barroso.
The declaration grew out of an unprecedented meeting that brought
together 16 nations and the European Union — a group dubbed the “major
economies” — around the issue of global warning. The session,
organized by President Bush, took place here on the northern Japanese
island of Hakkaido, where leaders of the so-called Group of 8 wealthy
nations wrapped up three days of meetings on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Group of 8 pledged to “move toward a carbon-free
society” by cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases in half by 2050.
But poorer countries, led by China and India, refused to sign onto
that goal — they are holding out until rich nations like the United
States take more aggressive steps to cut pollution over the next
decade.
That fissure prevented the countries from “reaching any meaningful
understanding,” said one expert, Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned
Scientists. But another expert, Phillip Clapp of the Pew Environmental
Group, said the declaration helped set the stage for the next American
president to grapple with climate change when the United Nations
conducts negotiations on a binding treaty in Copenhagen, Denmark, in
2009.
“It is good that the developing countries have embraced the principal
of a global target that they will participate in,” Mr. Clapp said. “It
would have been better if the United States and the other G-8
countries would have been willing to step up to the plate and make a
strong commitment about what they would do over the next 10 years. “
President Bush claimed success.
“In order to address climate change, all major economies must be at
the table,” hesaid before flying back to Wa****ngton. “And that’s what
took place today.”
For Mr. Bush, who is trying to salvage his legacy on climate change
late in his administration after years of international pressure to
take a more aggressive stance, the back-to-back declarations were an
im****tant step. Mr. Bush has long insisted that any international
treaty include developing nations like China and India.
“This is an enormous movement for a man who questioned the science on
global warming, who was opposed to international treaties and who was
opposed to international targets,” said Mr. Clapp, a frequent critic
of the president’s policies. “Here he is leading the way trying to get
a global target. He’s gotten the developing countries to acknowledge
there should be a global goal.”
Beyond climate change, the three-day meeting tackled issues including
rising food and energy prices, aid to Africa and the political crisis
in Zimbabwe.
Debate over the Beijing Olympics bubbled up on the sidelines, as
President Bush, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda of Japan all said they would attend the opening
ceremonies — a move that drew criticism from human rights advocates.
After Mr. Bush met with Prime Minister Hu Jintao of China on
Wednesday, Mr. Hu thanked the president, saying, “I highly appreciated
that President Bush has on various occasions expressed his opposition
to politicizing the Olympic games.”
Mr. Bush, for his part, said he did not “need the Olympics to talk
candidly” with China. What he really wants, he said, is to see the
U.S.-China basketball game. “If you could help me get a ticket,” he
told Mr. Hu, “I’d appreciate it.”
But climate change dominated the summit agenda. Although the meeting
put the United States on record for the first time as embracing a
specific long-term goal, environmentalists complained that the
declaration by the G-8 did not go far enough.
“Major economies meeting turns into major embarrassment meeting for
G8,” the WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement.
Together, the countries that issued the declaration are responsible
for more than 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that
scientists have said are warming the planet. But there is a dispute
between rich and poor nations over how to set targets, and who should
bear the brunt of the responsibility.
There is also a dispute over the starting point for the Group of 8
plan to halve emissions by 2050. Advocates say the cuts should be
pegged to 1990 emissions levels, but Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of
Japan, the host of the meeting, told re****ters Wednesday that the
starting point would be “the recent situation.”
That language was not included in the group’s declaration. But Mr.
Fukuda said, “I think we have everyone’s understanding on this.”
Independent scientists say cutting emissions in half by 2050 is not
enough to combat climate change, and developing countries agree.
Under a proposal put forth by China, India, Mexico, South Africa and
Brazil, developed nations would cut emissions between 25 and 40
percent over 1990 levels by 2020. In return, developing countries
would cut their own emissions 80 to 95 percent by 2050.
David Doniger, an expert on climate change at the Natural Resources
Defense Council in Wa****ngton, predicted the two sides could come
together around such an arrangement, but probably not until a new
president is in the White House.
“Working that out is going to be hard,” Mr. Doniger said. “But it’s so
much further along than it was two years ago when the U.S. wouldn’t
even let the negotiations start, and when the Chinese weren’t ready to
say anything except, ‘We’re a developing country, you created this
problem, you have to solve it.’”
Martin Fackler contributed re****ting for this article.
--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004
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