"50 by 2050 - G8 Summint Plans to reduce to 50 % by 2050"

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50 by 2050: G-8 Countries to cut Greenhouse gases emission by half by 2050

The Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial nations consisting of the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy, on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, in Japan, signed a climate change declaration to cut to half, the world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. They also called on all rapidly growing economies of the World (e.g. China and India) to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.

The declaration represents a step forward for industrial nations like Russia and United States whose presidents have not signed Kyoto Protocol because they would like emission caps to be set not only for industrialised nations (as it is in Kyoto Protocol) but also for developing nations, particularly the rapidly developing nations like China and India. José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission said “This is a strong signal to citizens around the world. The science is clear, the economic case for action is stronger than ever. Now we need to go the extra mile to secure an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen (referring to the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen).”

However, developing nations, scientists and environmentalists have described the new agreement as weak and too little for the urgency of action required to curb the threatening global warming. They argued that the agreement is vague and does not set any baseline for the emission reduction.

Kyoto Protocol specified reductions to the average of 5.2% of 1990 emission values by 2012 for the developed nations while the developing nations are not required to cap their emission generations because they are thought of as contributing very minimally to the global emission pollution. Russia and United states did not sign the Kyoto Protocol because they would like emission caps to be set for rapidly emerging economies and not just for the wealthy nations.

The "50 by 2050" was first proposed, during the G8 summit held in Heiligendamm, Germany 2007, as a replacement to the embattled Kyoto Protocol which comes to the end of its first term in 2012. On June 7, 2007, a non-binding communiqué was issued by the G8 members announcing that the G8 nations would 'aim to at least halve global CO₂ emissions by 2050'. The details enabling this to be achieved was planned to be negotiated by environment ministers within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a process that would also include the major emerging economies. The agreement was welcomed by the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair as 'a major step forward'. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, preferred that a binding figure for emissions reduction to have been set, but this was apparently blocked by U.S. President George W. Bush until the other major greenhouse gas emitting countries, like India and China, make similar commitments.

Over the past year, there have been discussions on the communique, culminating in the agreement signed on July 8/9, 2008.

"So little progress after a whole year of Minister meetings and negotiations is not only a wasted opportunity, it falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change," said Kim Carstensen, Director of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Initiative.

"To be meaningful and credible, a long term goal must have a base year, it must be underpinned by ambitious midterm targets and actions," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. "As it is expressed in the G8 statement, the long term goal is an empty slogan."

Shorter-term targets have been much more difficult to reach consensus on, since they would require nations to act more quickly. The United States, for instance, has argued that meeting a Europe-supported goal of reducing emissions by between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 is unrealistic.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda — the summit host — said the G-8 countries would set individual targets, and he did not mention a range. The statement also said that the issue would be discussed in talks on Monday among the 17-member Major Economies Meeting, a U.S.-led group working on climate change.

"The G-8 will implement aggressive midterm total emission reduction targets on a country by country basis," he said.

The agreement also urged nations to set high goals for energy efficiency, promote clean energy and technologies, and mobilize financing to help poor nations cut their own emissions and grapple with the effects of warming

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