G-8 declaration recognizes global warming
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-08 09:22

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations reached a global warming agreement that recognizes the problem as partly caused by human activity but does not set targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Thursday.

French President Jacques Chirac called the reported agreement — to be unveiled on the final day of the G-8 summit Friday — a partial victory, given President Bush's long-standing refusal to join the other leaders in ratifying the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

"We have noted a visible, real evolution in the American position which allowed it to progress toward an agreement which will be an important step ... toward an improvement of the situation," said Chirac.

Three environmental groups — The Climate Group, WWF International and Friends of the Earth International — criticized the reported agreement for failing to take significant action. But some activists see any recognition by the Bush administration of the science behind climate change as a key step.

"The communique ... has no targets or timetables. There is no concrete action, and that's what people will be disappointed about," said Mark Kenber, policy director of the London-based Climate Group. He said Bush had ceded some ground but that the agreement "isn't the turnaround that Chirac is painting."

A draft of the final statement obtained by The Associated Press said an increased demand for and consumption of fossil fuels, as well as other human activities, was contributing in large part to the build up of greenhouse gases tied to the warming of the Earth's surface. It said the signatories to the Kyoto accord hope to ensure its success.

A top German official said the final declaration will mention the Kyoto Protocol but will not include targets for greenhouse gas emissions. "The word Kyoto will feature, (but) it won't contain any numbers," said Bernd Pfaffenbach, the official responsible for Germany's G-8 preparations.

France and others had hoped to include an explicit reference to the Kyoto Protocol and how to proceed when the accord expires in 2012.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called mention of Kyoto a positive sign. "That has been, until now, almost impossible," he said at the Gleneagles resort where the summit is being held.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said after a breakfast meeting with Bush on Thursday that differences between the United States and other industrialized nations over Kyoto would not be resolved, but he hoped to build consensus on how to tackle global warming in the future.

"We are not going to resolve every single issue at the G-8 summit in relation to this. What we can do is narrow the issues down," Blair said.

G-8 leaders and those of five other countries attending the meeting — China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa — agreed over lunch Thursday on the importance of tackling global warming and reducing energy consumption, said Kaoru Ishikawa, an official with Japan's delegation. They also talked about the importance of technology in that effort and the significance of dialogue between industrialized nations and emerging economies, he said.

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