Group of Seven leaders agreed yesterday to wean their economies off carbon fuels and supported a global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but they stopped short of agreeing their own immediate binding targets.

In a communique issued after their two-day summit in Bavaria, the G7 leaders said they backed reducing global greenhouse gas emissions at the upper end of a range of 40 to 70 per cent by 2050, using 2010 as a basis. The range was recommended by the IPCC, the United Nations’ climate-change panel. They also backed a global target for limiting the rise in average global temperatures to two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

“We commit to doing our part to achieve a low-carbon global economy in the long-term, including developing and deploying innovative technologies striving for a transformation of the energy sectors by 2050, and invite all countries to join us in this endeavour,” the communique read.

Leaders stop short of agreeing any immediate binding targets for their economies

G7 host Angela Merkel of Germany, once dubbed the “climate chancellor”, hoped to revitalise her green credentials by getting the G7 nations to agree specific emissions goals ahead of a larger year-end UN climate meeting in Paris. The leaders stopped short of agreeing any such immediate binding targets for their economies. Green lobby groups nonetheless welcomed the direction of their agreements.

The Europeans had pressed their G7 partners to sign up to legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, once dubbed the “climate chancellor”, is pushing her green credentials during the G7 summit in Germany.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and European Union took a firm stance on Russia and its involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Merkel said the G7 countries were ready, if necessary, to strengthen sanctions against Russia. The leaders want Russia and Ukraine to comply with a February 12 ceasefire agreed in the Belarus capital Minsk that largely halted fighting in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine forces.

“We are also ready, should the situation escalate, which we don’t want, to strengthen sanctions if the situation makes that necessary, but we believe we should do everything to move forward the political process of Minsk,” Merkel told a final news conference of a two-day G7 summit in Bavaria.

In the communique, the leaders said they expected Russia to stop its support for separatist forces in Ukraine and implement the Minsk agreements in full. The sanctions, they said, “can be rolled back when Russia meets these commitments.”