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G-8 TAKES NO CONCRETE GLOBAL WARMING STEPS
By Thomas Wagner
The Associated Press
Friday, July 8, 2005; 10:43 PM

http://tinyurl.com/a95f5

GLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND -- The Group of Eight summit bowed to U.S. pressure on
Friday by approving a declaration on climate change that avoided taking any
concrete steps to fight global warming, such as setting targets or
timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The summit declined to embrace Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal for
promises of sharp reductions of pollutants that scientists say cause global
warming.

It also failed to resolve a long-standing impasse over the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which the Bush administration has rejected but which the other G-8
members have ratified, binding them to reduction targets that are now in
effect.

President Bush has questioned the existence of global warming, saying the
protocol would have "wrecked" the U.S. economy. He objects to the fact that
large developing nations such as China and India are exempt from it.

Blair, however, won a compromise at the G-8 summit by getting its members to
agree to a new round of international talks on climate change -- to be held
in Britain in November -- that will include wealthy nations and emerging
economies.

French President Jacques Chirac, who has called global warming "a terribly
menacing reality," said Friday that the G-8 leaders had achieved substantial
results and that the agreement on climate change would ensure "indispensable
dialogue" among nations.

But many environmental groups called the summit a failure on global warming
and blamed it on the Bush administration.

"The G-8 leaders did not agree on a single concrete action to address
climate change," said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National
Environmental Trust. "President Bush did not budge one inch from the
intransigent position he has taken on global warming ... and the White House
staff worked nonstop for months to water any possible deal down."

Greenpeace said the G-8 communique "highlights the divisions between
President Bush and the rest of the world on tackling climate change."

In his final speech at the summit, Blair announced that the G-8 members and
other nations, including five of the world's largest emerging economies --
China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa -- had agreed to work together
to deal with the issue of global warming. He said they would meet on Nov. 1
in Britain to discuss the effort to "slow down and then in time reverse the
rise in harmful greenhouse gas emissions."

On Thursday those five countries, which all attended the summit, issued a
joint statement endorsing the Kyoto Protocol and urging developed countries
such as the United States to "take the lead in international action to
combat climate change by fully implementing their obligations of reducing
emissions."

Blair acknowledged the summit had had no chance of resolving the
disagreement within the G-8 over Kyoto or renegotiating a set of new targets
for greenhouse gas emissions. But he said the summit had effectively agreed
that global warming is an urgent problem and that human activity is
contributing to it.

Blair said the agreement to hold a new round of talks indicates "a firm
consensus that this problem needs to be tackled now" in a dialogue that
includes a wide range of countries.

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Published by David Sunfellow
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