German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, gestures as she greets U.S. President George W. Bush during arrivals at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Thursday June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Posted on 06/07/2007 12:18:32 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany - Group of Eight leaders including President Bush agreed Thursday to call for substantial global emissions reductions to fight global warming and cited a goal of a 50 percent cut by 2050.
European leaders hailed the deal as progress in the wrangling between Europe and the United States over global warming, with the Europeans pushing mandatory cuts and the U.S. resisting.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who shepherded the deal as chair of the G-8 summit in this seaside resort in northern Germany, called it "very great progress and an excellent result." With Bush resisting concrete cuts, it had appeared Merkel's summit would fall short of her goal of a substantial deal on climate change.
"We agree that we need reduction goals — and obligatory reduction goals," she said.
But the language of the declaration appeared to be well short of a full commitment. It called for the countries to "seriously consider" following the European Union, Japan and Canada in seeking to halve emissions by 2050.
Merkel, who has made climate change the centerpiece of Germany's G-8 leadership, had lobbied fellow leaders on the issue for months. The G-8 is Germany, the United States, Russia, Britain, Italy, France, Canada and Japan.
"No one can escape this political declaration; it is an enormous step forward," she told reporters.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked if there was "wiggle room." He said the final result would depend on upcoming U.N. climate change negotiations.
"However, there is now a process to lead to that agreement, and at its heart is a commitment to a substantial cut," he said. "What does substantial mean? That serious consideration is given to the halving of emissions by 2050."
Blair called the deal "a major, major step forward."
On the first full day of the summit, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed their dispute over a U.S. proposal to put a missile defense system in eastern Europe. Bush also waxed nostalgic about this last summit with friend and Iraq war ally Blair, who leaves office June 27.
"I'm sad about that," Bush said.
The meeting also produced an unexpected proposal from Putin, who said he would drop his opposition to the U.S. missile defense system if it made use of a Russian-leased radar station in Azerbaijan. Currently the plan is to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic to guard against a potential future threat from Iran.
Bush did not mention Putin's proposal, saying only that Putin had made "some interesting suggestions." The two agreed to continue discussing the issue during talks next month at the Bush family vacation home in Maine.
On climate change, Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said the ideas in the G-8 declaration were in the proposal the president issued last week. Bush called for having the top 15 polluters meet to set a long-term goal for reducing harmful emissions, and decide for themselves how much to do toward meeting it.
"The president made clear last week that he accepted the principle of a long-term goal," Hadley said during a telephone briefing with reporters. "I think it's very consistent with some ideas that the president had last week, but it was also consistent with ideas that have been advanced by others."
The document endorses the U.N. framework for climate change talks, a key demand from Merkel. But it did not commit to Merkel's target under which global temperatures would be allowed to increase by no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) before being brought back down.
Experts say the 50 percent emissions reduction is needed to meet that goal.
Bush has opposed mandatory cuts and maintains that developing nations such as China, India and Brazil must be included. He also says economic growth cannot be sacrificed for progress on climate change, and stresses cleaner technology and biofuels as ways to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, which generate the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming.
Climate talks will begin within the U.N. framework with a meeting of environment ministers at a U.N. climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December.
The conference will seek to come up with a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which commits industrial countries to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels. The U.S. signed the treaty but did not ratify it because it did not apply to developing countries such as China and India.
The top U.N. climate official said the agreement was "very important progress" because it committed the countries to come up with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by 2009.
"The important thing is to get the negotiations going, rather than to decide what the outcome is going to be," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"I know Chancellor Merkel is declaring victory, but in fact President Bush has shut the door in the faces of the other seven leaders at the table," said Philip Clapp, president of the U.S.-based National Environmental Trust, pointing to the "seriously consider" phrase.
"That is a far cry from the United States having signed up to any such reductions," he said.
Clapp said the agreement showed progress among the other countries in reaching a consensus that could be taken up by the next U.S. president after Bush leaves office in January 2009.
Outside the summit site, protests continued.
Police used water cannons to turn back thousands of demonstrators who rushed the seven-mile fence surrounding the summit site, and police boats chased inflatable boats from the environmental group Greenpeace that entered the security zone on the Baltic Sea.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Quinn contributed to this report.
Police used water cannons to turn back thousands of demonstrators who rushed the seven-mile fence surrounding the summit site..
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Hmmm? I wonder how long it took them to build a seven-mile fence ? ;-)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, gestures as she greets U.S. President George W. Bush during arrivals at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Thursday June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Guess they all figured out how to tax and make money from this scam.
President Bush, left, reaches out to shake hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin after talking to reporters after their meeting at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Thursday June 7, 2007 (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A spectator is held aloft during the music festival 'Deine Stimme gegen Armut' (Your voice against poverty) during the G8 summit in Rostock, Germany, Thursday June 7, 2007. Campaigners like U2 lead singer Bono, Sir Bob Geldof and local acts perform against poverty.The leaders of the G8 nations hold their annual summit in the historic Heiligendamm sea resort on June 6-8, 2007. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)
I hope they checked him for radiation poisoning.
G8 leaders pose for the summit official photograph in Heiligendamm, June 7, 2007. (Jim Young/Reuters)
I'll drink to that! ;-)
CAPTION CLARIFICATION - REISSUING TO CLARIFY THAT PRESIDENT BUSH IS DRINKING A NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER. U.S. President George W. Bush enjoys a non-alcoholic beer before an official dinner in Heiligendamm June 7, 2007. Leaders from the world's major industrialised nations meet in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm on June 6-8 for a Group of Eight (G8) summit. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer (GERMANY)
Global agreement:
A: “Sure is hot, ain’t it?
W: “Yup”
A: “Windy, too.”
W: “Yup”
G8 leaders walk along a sea bridge in Heiligendamm, June 7, 2007. Pictured are (L-R) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. REUTERS/Jim Young (GERMANY)
100 EUros to the first one to jump in ..
The smart ones know that global defrauding will be seen as a lame joke in 10 years time, just as the ice-age scares of the 70's.
I wonder if there has ever been a modern politician that possessed any common sense.
I thought the good Kanzler was supposed to be conservative.
Maybe it’s a good time after all to look at buying into the coal and nuclear power industries ? ;-)
Thanks for posting that....you’re right.....this is just political COVER......
As I recall, Algore (then VP of USA) signed the treaty (who had no constitutional provision for the executive branch to sign treaties) and then Clinton submitted the treaty to the Senate for confirmation. Failed 93-0.
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