G-8 Nations set goal for gas emissions

The group of eight leading industrial nations constituting the G-8, USA, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy, meeting at the picturesque lakeside resort of Toyako in northern Japan, declared on July 1, 08 their agreement to reduce the global green house gas emissions to half by the year 2050. No base-year has, however, been mentioned. They called on all major economies to join in the fight against global warming. G-8 had been under pressure to secure commitments by wealthy nations to push forward halted UN-lead talks on a new agreement on global warming to take the place of the Kyoto Protocol which ends in 2012. The present declaration falls short of these expectations and merely reiterates the decision made by them last year. No tough, near-term measures have been agreed upon. (Source: The Economic Times, July 9, 2008)