TOYAKO, Japan — Leaders from the Group of Eight have vowed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 and declared support for investments in clean energy technologies and carbon capture and storage systems.
The nonbinding agreement made by the G8 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - does not include a starting point from where reductions will be measured.
The declaration also calls for all major economies to commit to binding emissions reductions, which will be discussed at meetings in Copenhagen next year.
Today the G8 nations, meeting on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, were set to meet with the United Nations and other major GHG-emitting nations such as China and India to discuss reduction targets.
The
G8 Declaration on Environment and Climate Change says the nations will each enact mid-term goals, stop the growth of emissions and support emissions mitigation plans in developing countries.
G8 leaders said they "promote clean energy," "recognize the important role of renewable energy" and "underscore the importance of sustainable biofuel production and use."
The declaration also advocates carbon trading and clean technologies, specifically carbon capture and storage, supporting the creation of 20 demonstration projects by 2010 and deploying the technology by 2020.
The G8 announcement has so far been criticized for not declaring that the halving of emissions would be from 1990 levels and for not setting reduction targets for 2020.
