Climate change at the G8 summit?
Updated on 06 June 2007
Together but apart, on climate change at the G8 summit, as the White House warns it could take 18 months to fix a target.
Some like it hot in Heigelendamm, Germany's oldest seaside resort, the Baltic lapping at its shore, the perfect backdrop for a breakthrough on combating climate change - or maybe not.
For as they fly in from every corner, their planes taxiing on the runway here, the leaders of the world's biggest economies still can't be sure they can reach a deal.
One that would make all the CO2 they're emitting worth it. Nicolas Sarkozy with France's first lady on their first G8 outing saluting what he calls the "encouraging evolution" of George Bush's thinking.
But Tony Blair at this his G8 swansong is going even further, talking of winning a "substantial cut" in greenhouse gases from his Texan oilman friend, claiming that not just G8 but global agreement on a 50% cut on carbon levels by 2050 is achievable.
"At the heart of that has to be a global target for a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions"- Tony Blair
His parting shot to the Commons before leaving for Germany was that even if a new deal on climate doesn't end the Blair years it won't be for lack of trying:
"There should be a new global deal that involves all the main players
including America and China when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.
At the heart of that has to be a global target for a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and that should be followed through the United Nations process.
I believe that those are key things we need out from the G8 agenda"
