G8 reaches agreement on climate temperatures

L’AQUILA, Italy — The Group of Eight industrialized nations joined with developing countries in agreeing Wednesday that average global temperatures shouldn’t increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius in a significant new acknowledgement in the fight against global warming.

The United States and other G-8 leaders also said they supported a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent or more by 2050.

But they made no nearer-term reduction targets and 17 developing nations participating in the G-8 summit refused to commit to any targets at all, disappointing environmentalists.

Climate change experts nevertheless said the acknowlegment on the 2 degree temperature cap from both the G-8 and a 17-member group of developing nations was an important step since it now implies that countries actually have to do something to prevent temperatures from increasing.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it a “historic agreement” and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was “a clear step forward.”

“After a long struggle, all of the G-8 nations have finally accepted the 2 degree goal. From the United States of America to Japan and Europe, everyone will work on this goal,” Merkel told reporters.

The leaders reached agreement on the first day of the G-8 summit, which opened with the leaders of the United States, Britain France, Italy, Germany and Japan discussing a host of issues, from climate change to the financial crisis to North Korean nuclear nonproliferation.

They will be joined Thursday for a deeper discussion on climate change with the 17-member Major Economies Forum, which includes China, which has overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest polluter, and India, which is close behind. Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea and the European Union also are in that club of the world’s major polluters.

The climate discussions at L’Aquila come ahead of a crucial December summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the United Nations aims to conclude a new, worldwide climate pact to replace the 1987 Kyoto protocol.

In their statement Wednesday, the G-8 said there was a “broad scientific view” that global temperatures “ought not to exceed 2 degrees Celsius” from their pre-industrial levels.

The forum of developing countries used the same language in their provisional statement. The forum countries, though, made no emissions reductions targets in their statement, scrapping any reference to it because the G-8 wouldn’t agree to nearer-term goals which they think are more important.

U.N. scientists have said keeping the rise in temperature within safe limits means the world must halve heat-causing pollution by mid-century. Until now, the U.S. has resisted embracing the 2 degree C target because it implies a commitment to dramatically change the way the world generates electricity, fuels its cars and builds its houses.

Most scientists agree that even a slight increase in average temperatures would wreak havoc on farmers around the globe, as seasons shift, crops fail and storms and droughts ravage fields.

“The 2-degree threshold is important because it … minimizes the risk of really dangerous runaway climate change,” said Kim Carstensen, director of the gobal climate initiative of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. “It doesn’t eliminate the risk, but it minimizes it.”

Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said early drafts of the developing countries statements had included language pledging a 50 percent global reduction in emissions by 2050 and 80 percent reduction by industrialized countries. But the emerging countries said in their provisional statement only that they would work together to achieve “strong results” on emissions reductions before the Copenhagen summit.

The emerging countries have been upset that the industrialized G-8 hasn’t been forthcoming on either mid-term emissions reductions or pledges of financing and transferring technology to the developing world, and are refusing to commit to specific targets until financing commitments are made by the G-8, said Meyer and Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA.

A panel of U.N. scientists has said industrial countries must together cut carbon emissions by 25 to 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 to keep average global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees above preindustrial levels 150 years ago.

At their last summit in Japan a year ago, the G-8 committed to reducing carbon emissions 50 percent by 2050. But the vague statement did not specify which year it would take as a base line. U.N. scientists have used 1990 as the starting point, but the United States and Japan are using 2005 levels.

The difference is significant: Since 1990, U.S. emissions have risen 23 percent. Disagreement over which start date persists, G-8 delegation members said Wednesday.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill imposing the first U.S. limits on greenhouse gases, eventually leading to an 80 percent reduction by mid-century by putting a price on each ton of climate-altering pollution. The Senate is to discuss similar action, but compromises in the bill are expected.

Associated Press reporters Charles Babington and Emma Vandore in L’Aquila contributed to this report.