The BBC just announced that the G8 leaders have agreed to a climate deal:
Leaders of the G8 nations have agreed to seek "substantial" cuts in emissions in an effort to tackle climate change.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the G8 would negotiate within a UN framework to seek a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009.
That's the good news. A general agreement. The not-so-good news?
No mandatory target was set for the cuts...
Merkel's preference for a 50% emissions cut by the year 2050 was included and the countries that actually agreed to Mrs. Merkel's preference: EU, Canada and Japan.
Okay, so I'm all for that. I'm also for teeth...
More dentures below the fold...
From the text of the G8 statement:
"Taking into account the scientific knowledge as represented in the recent IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports, global greenhouse gas emissions must stop rising, followed by substantial global emission reductions."
From Reuters:
The agreement, sealed at a G8 summit on the Baltic coast, binds the world's largest polluter, the United States, more closely into international efforts to curb the gases scientists say are causing dangerous changes to world weather patterns.
But it does not commit the club of industrialized nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- to the firm emissions reduction targets that the summit host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had wanted.
Bush stated he will not sign on to actual C02 targets unless China and India sign on first (ever heard of leading by example, dude?).
So, we all melt while he plays doctor (I'll show you mine if you show me yours).
Now, there are good things about the agreement, don't get me wrong. Blair was his usual optimistic self: "I'm both surprised and very pleased at how far we have come forward." And the UN spokesman spun it to the positive, as well:
Yvo de Boer, head of the UN's climate change division, quickly welcomed the agreement.
He told the Reuters news agency the deal augured well for a meeting to discuss a post-Kyoto consensus scheduled for Bali in December.
So, all we have to do is make it through the next Hurricane Season to see what happens in Bali.
Okey docky, all righty then...
::sigh::
As for Bu$hCo? As diaried here and here, climate-schimate-out of sight, out of mind...
Here's the link to the BBC Report.
And the Reuters Report.
© 2007 jhritz – all rights reserved