commentWorld Leaders Meet to Discuss Global Warming Crisis
Leaders of the world’s richest countries came together in Hokkaido, Japan last Tuesday at the G-8 summit, pledging to “move toward a low-carbon society” by reducing greenhouse gas emission by 50 percent by 2050. The Group of Eight, including the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, and Russia, are responsible for 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas production.
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Confusion arose over whether the 50 percent cutbacks would be from 1990 or present-day levels. Experts say that the pledge does not go far enough if it only applies to modern levels, which seems to be the case according to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan, who indicated that Japan would be happy using current levels.
European leaders were content with the nonbinding agreement, seeing it as progress toward a binding international treaty, set to be negotiated in Copenhagen in 2009. This is also the first time that the Bush administration has backed an explicit long-term target. Environmentalists, however, criticized the meeting as a missed opportunity because of the absence of immediate plans to address the crisis and the failure to distinctly involve big developing countries, including China and India, in the efforts.
The following day, the “Outreach Five” leaders of developing nations, including China, India, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil, joined the Group of Eight. The five agreed to support a general, long-term goal of reducing emissions, but were not specific about supporting cutting emissions in half by 2050. They have been urging the industrialized nations to take the lead with short-term targets to no avail.
The sentiments and frustrations of environmental advocates were expressed by a full-page, color ad in the Financial Times from the international advocacy group, Avaaz.org. The ad showed the faces of Mr. Fukuda, Mr. Bush, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada superimposed onto the Japanese anime characters of Hello Kitty, reading “Hello Kiddies, Be a Grown-Up. Set 2020 climate targets now.”
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