United States President George Bush on Thursday night pledged his country to a “substantial” cut in greenhouse gas as the West’s leading industrial nations agreed to negotiate a new climate change deal within the next two years.
After strong lobbying from EU leaders, Bush agreed to “seriously consider” a proposal that would result in a 50% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 but made it clear that US involvement depended on India and China being included in any agreement.
Though it fell short of his pre-summit goal, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had used his last one-to-one meeting with Bush to press for a strong G8 commitment to a multilateral UN treaty to succeed the 1997 Kyoto accord, described the breakthrough as “a huge step forward”.
“The possibility is here for the first time to get a global deal on climate change with substantial cuts in emissions with everyone in the deal — which is the only way we are going to get the deal we need.
“This is a major, major step forward. There’s now the recognition that we do need a global deal with everyone in it.”
While the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the G8 deal as “a very, very substantial and significant step forward,” the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was less effusive. “If you want me to say that we could have done better, then yes. I want to speak frankly.”
Environmental groups were split over the significance of the agreement.
Ahead of the G8 summit, Bush had stoked fears that the US, the world’s biggest economy and leading emitter of greenhouse gases, was seeking to stall United Nations action on climate change.
But on Thursday Bush said: “The United States will be actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework, post-Kyoto agreement. I view our role as a bridge between people in Europe and others and India and China. And if you want them at the table, it’s important to give them an opportunity to set an international goal. And that’s why I laid out the initiative I laid out.
“We’re deadly earnest in getting something done; this is serious business. And the fundamental question is how best to send proper signals to create the technologies necessary to deal with this issue.”
Under Thursday’s agreement, the G8 called for strong and early action to tackle climate change through a “substantial global emissions reduction”.
It wants the major emitters to reach agreement by the end of next year with a global UN accord reached in 2009.
The G8 added that it would “seriously consider” an agreement between the EU, Japan and Canada which would cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, and invited the major emerging economies to “join us in this endeavour”.
Participation by China and India is vital for the success of the G8 deal, since Bush has made it clear that he will not hand a competitive advantage to China and India. The UN said Thursday’s announcement was a step towards a broader, worldwide pact by 2009. “It’s a very positive outcome,” said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN climate change secretariat in Bonn. “It augurs very well for the conference of parties in Bali,” he said, referring to a UN meeting in Indonesia in December that will look for long-term ways to combat climate change when the Kyoto agreement expires at the end of 2011.
UK sources said the move was made possible after Blair was asked by Merkel to use his close relationship with the Bush to find a way forward.
Blair admitted that there was still a long way to go on climate change, with the need to agree on a baseline date for reductions in greenhouse gases and a formula for how the cuts should be shared out. The prime minister was encouraged, however, that reducing emissions was linked to setting up a global system of carbon trading. The Conservatives welcomed the progress made at the summit. – Guardian Unlimited Â