G8 climate change deal not agreed

The G8 countries meeting in Italy have failed to agree a deal with developing nations over the goal of halving carbon emissions by 2050.

G8 countries failed to agree a deal over halving carbon emissions by 2050 G8 countries failed to agree a deal over halving carbon emissions by 2050

Negotiators were trying instead to achieve the more modest target of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 2C, sources said.

Climate change experts say the two-degree threshold, which has been embraced by the European Union and some developing countries, would not eliminate the risk of runaway climate change but would minimise it.

The G-8 opened with the leaders of the United States, Britain France, Italy, Germany and Japan discussing a host of issues, from climate change to North Korean nuclear non-proliferation.

They will be joined on Thursday for a deeper discussion on climate change with the 17-member Major Economies Forum, which includes China, which has overtaken the US as the world's biggest polluter, and India, which is close behind. Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea and the European Union also are in that club of the world's major polluters.

The climate discussions come ahead of a crucial December summit in Copenhagen where the United Nations aims to conclude a new, worldwide climate pact.

Emerging countries have been upset that the industrialised G8 has not been forthcoming on pledges of financing and transferring technology to the developing world, and are refusing to commit to specific targets.

A panel of UN scientists has said industrial countries must together cut carbon emissions by 25% to 40% from 1990 levels by 2020 to keep average global temperatures from rising more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels 150 years ago.

At their last summit in Japan a year ago, the G8 committed to reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2050.

Comments Unavailable

Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?