G8 leaders agree to post-Kyoto talks

The G8 leaders have pledged to start discussions at the end of the year on a successor to the Kyoto treaty on climate change.

The deal, which was proclaimed as a major victory by German chancellor Angela Merkel, is seen as significant because it is the first time the US has agreed to be involved in talks on post-Kyoto, and - crucially - to do this under UN leadership.

The G8 leaders agreed to launch negotiations on climate change at the UN climate conference in Bali in December 2007 and to end the negotiations by 2009.

US president George W. Bush told the G8 leaders the US would be “actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework, post-Kyoto agreement”.

Supporters of the 1997 agreement feared that unless talks started soon on post-Kyoto, the treaty would run out with little prospect of a new deal.

But the leaders at the summit failed to agree on a mandatory 50 per cent reduction in global emissions by 2050 – a key provision which Merkel had strongly pushed for at the meeting.

In addition, the compromise deal does not commit the US or Russia to specific greenhouse gas reductions.

The lack of mandatory CO2 reductions and binding deadlines has triggered strong criticism from many environmental organisations.

Friends of the Earth said the deal “is weak and lacks substance”, and noted that the G8 countries “failed to commit to serious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions”.
 
But European commission president José Manuel Barroso welcomed the agreement, noting that the US had previously refused to even agree that global warming was a problem.

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