euro|topics - A breakthrough on climate protection?

04/07/2009

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Main focus of Wednesday, July 9, 2008

A breakthrough on climate protection?

The G8 states have agreed at their summit meeting in Japan to half worldwide CO2 emissions by 2050, marking an unprecedented US commitment to reducing greenhouse gases. Europe's press is nevertheless critical of the agreement.

Diário de Notícias - Portugal

The daily Diário de Notícias calls the agreements reached at the G8 summit in Japan nothing but empty promises: "The main actors at the G8 summit were happy with their agreement to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Of course, by then these smiling summit participants will no longer be here to be confronted with the statements they made today. Other promises made in the past do not bode well for the current ones. Three years ago the same eight countries promised to double financial aid to Africa by 2010. ... So far their aid has not even increased by a quarter." (09/07/2008)

The Guardian - United Kingdom

Greenpeace director John Suaven has harsh words for the G8 states in the left-liberal daily The Guardian: ""f the G8 wants to be taken seriously it should stop debating what the goal is for 2050 and introduce a moratorium on all new coal fired power stations in their countries. Coal burning is the biggest single cause of CO2 pollution and the greatest threat to the climate. ... This club is a powerful symbol of global inequality. If the G8 has any role at all, it should be to redress that inequality. That means taking responsibility for the climate impact of the industrialisation and consumption that has made the G8 into the biggest, richest and most powerful set of countries on Earth. The G8 nations are to blame for 62% of the CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere today. Tackling climate change is in their own interests as well as those of the 86% of the world's population not represented at the table in Hokkaido this week." (08/07/2008)

La Repubblica - Italy

For the daily La Repubblica, the G8's programme on climate change marks a victory for the US: "The [agreement] comes eight years too late, corresponding to the amount of time it took George W. Bush to see there was a problem at all. ... The agreement is a step backwards, bypassing and reversing the progress begun in Kyoto. The trick lies in the time frame adopted. The reduction which scientists and academics see as necessary to save the climate is 50 percent of 1990 CO2 emissions. But this date is intentionally suppressed in the G8 document. ... That means that the approach adopted in Kyoto is being cast aside. The extent of the reduction - which depends on the year taken as starting point - has been postponed to further negotiations, and will be decided according not to scientific, but to political criteria. The White House has won out." (09/07/2008)

De Standaard - Belgium

The daily De Standaard casts doubt on the significance of the G8 summit in view of its limited success. "How can you meaningfully talk about oil prices if only one major oil producer, Russia, is sitting at the table? And how can you seriously discuss economic and ecological challenges without China, the world's third largest economic power and polluter number one? ... One problem is that the media hype has far outstripped the modest results reached at the informal summit, where no binding decisions can be taken. ... But then the question arises: what is the purpose of the United Nations if all the important countries set up their own informal economic and ecological Security Council?" (09/07/2008)

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, July 9, 2008

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