G8 pursue climate change target
Updated on 09 July 2009
World leaders make "important strides" on tackling climate change at the G8 summit - but President Obama warns that more still needs to be done.
The G8 countries agreed last night to seek to limit the rise in global warming to two degrees Celsius by 2050, pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent.
But they still need developing nations to sign up to the deal.
Foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Rugman at the G8 summit said: "Diplomats say they are reasonably confident that some kind of two degree cap will be agreed. The concern is that it really doesn't add up to very much.
"What the G8 is extremely good at is goals, targets, aspirations. What it is not good at is binding commitments. This whole negotiation on climate change is a bit like a merry dance, where the developed world says 'after you' and the developing world says 'no, after you'.
"As long as this dance goes on both sides water down the commitments that they make.
"None of this bodes particularly well for the really important meeting in Copenhagen in December, which is supposed to agree a framework, an architecture for emissions cuts from 2012 onwards."
