Special Report: President Hu attends outreach session of G8 Summit, visits Sweden
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, June 6 (Xinhua) -- No fixed targets to fight global warming will come out of the Group of Eight (G8) summit as the United States and Germany remain far apart on the issue, reports said Wednesday.
Washington and Berlin have apparently failed to agree on fixed targets in the fight against global warming at talks ahead of the G8 summit, the German press service DPA said.
Germany, this year's G8 president nation which is hosting leaders from the world's main industrial countries in its northern seaside resort of Heiligendamm, has been pushing hard for firm targets on climate change.
Under Germany's proposal, the world's big players should commit themselves to limiting the rise of global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius this century and cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
However, the United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas producer, voiced "fundamental opposition" to the German proposal, making climate change one of the most controversial issues ahead of the G8 summit, which is scheduled to start on Wednesday evening.
Shortly before the summit, U.S. President George W. Bush announced a separate plan, calling on 15 of the world's biggest greenhouse emitters to meet and agree on long-term goals by the end of 2008.
The United States, which has not signed the Kyoto Protocol, remains opposed to mandatory targets, citing that environmental protection cannot come at the price of hurting economic growth.
The summit would end without an agreement on determined goals in the fight against global warming, James Connaughton, the U.S. President George W. Bush's chief environmental adviser, told DPA.
Connaughton said each country had to set its own targets, a view shared by other G8 members, such as Japan and Canada.
It would take more time until all leading industrialized nations could agree on a joint vision, the DPA reported, citing Connaughton.
Print
