G8 may invest billions to cut CO2

The Group of Eight wealthy nations are looking at investing more than €6.3 billion a year to support new technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, including carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), a Japanese daily reported.

A draft statement on economic issue is being considered for release at the summit of G8 leaders in Hokkaido, northern Japan, between next Monday and Wednesday, the business daily Nikkei said.

The G8 countries plan to fund research to develop CCS projects, which bury emissions from power plants, as a measure to help meet a global target to halve greenhouse gases by 2050, Nikkei said.

The draft statement also includes an agreement to set national interim goals to reduce emissions by 2020-2030, a step environmentalists and the EU say is vital, the Nikkei said, adding that no figures were included.

A Japanese government source told Reuters last week that the US had yet to agree to a goal of reducing global emissions by 50 per cent by mid-century. The G8 leaders will share strong concern over rising crude oil prices, which are pushing up inflation and depressing the world economy, Nikkei said.

The leaders will call for oil-consuming and producing nations to cooperate more closely, the newspaper said. With regard to rising food prices, the G8 nations will provide assistance to developing countries to increase food production.

They will speak up against food export restrictions imposed by some producing countries, Nikkei said.

Separately, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said the G8 nations could agree to stand ready to release grain from national and private food reserves at times of food crisis.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged at a UN food summit this month to release at least 300,000 tonnes of imported rice from storage into the world market to ease the global food crisis and urged other countries to do likewise.