Patching up climate deal, others want more

Group of Eight leaders patched together a deal to fight climate change at a summit that wound up on Wednesday, but failed to convince big emerging economies that rich countries were doing enough.

Climate change was the most contentious topic at this year's G8 summit in Japan, which also tackled geopolitical problems from the crisis in Zimbabwe to worsening security in Afghanistan as well as soaring food and oil prices and poverty in Africa.

"There's been no huge breakthrough at this particular meeting, it is one step along the road," said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who attended a climate change meeting where the G8 leaders were joined with eight more big polluters. "Of course, there's a long, long way to go."

The 16-member Major Economies Meeting group agreed that "deep cuts" in greenhouse gas emissions were needed to combat the global warming that is closely linked to rising food and fuel prices, already hitting vulnerable economies hard.

But bickering between rich and poorer countries kept most emerging economies from signing on to a goal of at least halving global emissions by 2050. Nor did the Major Economies Meeting come up with specific numbers for the interim targets they agreed advanced countries should set.

The leaders of Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the US had embraced the 2050 goal a day earlier, but stressed their countries could not do it alone.

The rich countries had to paper over deep gaps just to get their own climate change deal, with Europe and Japan urging bolder action while the US opposed promising firm targets without assurances big emerging economies will act too.

US President George W. Bush said "significant progress" was made on climate change at the summit, while Japan and the European Union also lauded the outcome.

Environmentalists, though, saw nothing to cheer.

"It's the stalemate we've had for a while," Kim Carstensen, director of the WWF's global climate initiative, told Reuters.

"Given the lack of willingness to move forward, particularly by the US, it hasn't been possible to break that."

Expectations for this week's summit talks on climate were always low. Many are sceptical that any significant advance on steps to combat global warming can be made until a new US President comes to office next January, including South Africa, one of five big emerging economies collectively called the G5.

"Until there's a change in the position of the US, South Africa's feeling is that it will be very difficult for the G5 to move forward because they will always be forced to work on that level of the lowest common denominator," said South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Developing countries, along with the EU and green groups, say rich countries must take the lead and specify interim targets for how to reach the mid-century goal, which scientists say is the minimum needed to prevent dangerous global warming.

India told the major economies meeting that developed countries had not done enough.

"This must change and you (the G8) must all show the leadership that you have always promised by taking and then delivering truly significant GHG (greenhouse gas) reductions," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the meeting.

The stance of emerging nations is important. The G8 nations emit about 40 per cent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions. China and India together emit about 25 per cent of the total, a proportion that is rising as their coal-fuelled economies boom.

Leaders of the G8 countries agreed at the summit to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe's leaders because of violence during the widely condemned re-election of President Robert Mugabe.

"There should be no safe haven and no hiding place for the criminal cabal that now make up the Mugabe regime," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a news conference after the summit.

Factbox - Quotes after G8 and major economies climate talks

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda:

"An expression of strong political will from 16 leaders - this will surely be a strong force to push UN negotiations forward," Mr Fukuda told a news conference.

"We would like to exert leadership along with other G8 countries so that emerging countries such as China and India also share the long-term goal and adopt it in UN negotiations," he said, referring to UN-led talks that seek to agree a broader pact to fight climate change by the end of next year at Copenhagen.

US President George W. Bush:

"We made progress, significant progress toward a comprehensive approach," Mr Bush said about climate change as he left Japan at the end of the G8 summit.

"I firmly believe that we can become less dependent on oil through new technology."

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd:

He told reporters the G8's 2050 emissions reduction goal was a step forward. "Of course, there's a long, long way to go. And part of that distance refers to the gap between developed and developing nations on targets and on national commitments by developing countries and on the technologies necessary to fulfil those targets and commitments."

Chinese Preseident Hu Jintao:

"Developed countries should strictly abide by the emissions reduction goals set by the Kyoto Protocol, and should also truly carry out their commitments to provide developing countries with funding and technology transfers. Developing countries must, within a framework of sustainable development, actively adopt policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change," state media quoted him as saying in a speech in Japan.

Indian Prime Minister Mammohan Singh:

Mr Singh told leaders at the Major Economies Meeting that India must work to help its poor and could not even consider quantitative restrictions on emissions. "The imperative for our accelerated growth is even more urgent when we consider the disproportionate impact of climate change on us as a developing country."

Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Environment Minister:

"You can say it's a problem, a challenge or a reality of the international political landscape that we have that these talks have to sometimes work on the lowest common denominator. And the lowest common denominator in the G8 is the US."