Group of Eight leaders were near agreement on Thursday on a goal of "substantial" cuts in world greenhouse gas emissions, well short of European calls to halve emissions.
"I think it's possible that we leave this summit with a commitment on the part of everyone to a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as a global target," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters after a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.
Bush, who unveiled his own plan for talks among 15 major emitters about fighting global warming last week, says it is too early to set numerical targets at the June 6-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.
Standing alongside Blair, Bush said: "We are deadly earnest about getting something done." Almost all scientists say rising temperatures, spurred by gases released by burning fossil fuels, will cause more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.
"The U.S. will be actively involved -- if not taking the lead -- in a post-Kyoto framework," Bush said. The United States is the only G8 nation outside the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, which sets cuts in greenhouse gases running to 2012.
Many companies want firm long-term rules as soon as possible to help guide investments in everything from coal-fired power plants to windmills. Environmentalists want tough goals to protect life on the planet.
MERKEL'S AIM
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pushed hard to include a goal in the G8 text that world emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, have to be cut by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 to curb climate change.
She says 50 percent cuts are needed to ensure that global temperatures do not rise more than 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, a threshold the European Union says will trigger "dangerous" changes in the climate system.
Bush opposes setting targets now and plans instead to call together the leading 15 greenhouse emitters -- led by the United States, China, Russia and India -- to agree on cuts beyond 2012 by the end of 2008.
Environmentalists wrote a letter to Merkel urging her to resist U.S. pressure. "It would be a failure," if the summit ended without firm targets, said Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace.
"Agreeing on a numerical target is a significant first step, and not taking that first step is going to condemn us to a lot of pain and suffering in terms of the impacts of climate change," said Neil Adger, a scientist with Britain's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Oil group BP, which supports a target of halving emissions by mid-century, compared to current trends, said that a long-term goal would help develop new technologies.
"It needs to be quantitative, numerical," said Chris Mottershead, energy and environment adviser to BP.
"We want to know what actions will be taken, whether (they are) specific renewable energy targets, nuclear targets, building efficiency targets. That we we'll know which markets will grow," said Alan Brown, Group Chief Investment Officer at Schroders PLC, which has $260 billion of assets under management.
(Reuters, 07/06/2007)