The Courier-Mail
By: Malcolm Farr, David Fogarty
The G8 Summit
The world's biggest polluters have agreed on the need for "deep cuts'' in greenhouse gas emissions.
But the historic meeting in Japan yesterday -- which was addressed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd -- failed again to set specific targets because of ongoing differences between developed and emerging economies.
The heads of big emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil (as well as Australia and a number of other "observer'' nations) were invited to join in yesterday's third and final day of the Group of Eight summit on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
A statement released late yesterday by leaders of 16 countries, including top emitters China and the US, came a day after the industrialised G8 nations endorsed a vision of halving global emissions by 2050 -- while stressing they could not achieve that goal alone and the big emerging economies needed to act too.
The 16 countries' leaders agreed major developed economies would set mid-term goals, but set out no specific numbers.
Environmentalists immediately blasted yesterday's final statement, which represented no changes from an earlier draft agreed on in late June by negotiators from the same countries in Seoul.
"It's the stalemate we've had for a while,'' said Kim Carstensen, director of the WWF's global climate initiative.
The stance of emerging nations is important.
The G8 nations emit about 40 per cent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions, with Australia responsible for an additional 1.5 per cent. China and India meanwhile together emit about 25 per cent of the total, a proportion that is rising exponentially as their coal-fuelled economies boom.
A Japanese government official revealed last night that of the invited nations, only Australia, Indonesia and South Korea had supported the G8 call to share their vision of halving global emissions by 2050. The others apparently argued that advanced countries currently responsible for the bulk of historical emissions must act first.
China's state Xinhua news agency quoted President Hu Jintao as saying:
"People's living standards are still not high, and China's core task at present is developing its economy and improving people's welfare.''
The G8 summit brings together the leaders of Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the US.
Mr Rudd's six-minute speech shortly after noon Queensland time yesterday was a chance for him to directly appeal to some of the world's biggest economies for a "new grand bargain'' on climate change.
But he was given only token acknowledgement for his trouble, and he last night flew out of Japan for Malaysia without direct action by major economies on oil prices.
The Prime Minister told the forum there was "too much disagreement among us'' on climate change.
"Together, we the world's largest economies are responsible for 80 per cent of our planet's greenhouse gas emissions,'' Mr Rudd told the world leaders.
"So together we are the ones who shoulder the hard decisions to provide for the planet's future.
"The buck stops with us".
"It doesn't stop with anyone else. It stops at this table.''
Mr Rudd also had brief one-on-one talks with eight international leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, and the leaders of India, Indonesia, and Japan.
The global leaders did talk about other things ...