Compromise agreement falls short of original aims

The compromise agreement, however, fell short of the original aims of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, but was more ambitious than many expected. It was clinched after President Bush was persuaded his own plan for a climate change conference in the autumn would be part of efforts to reach a global agreement through the UN. Against expectations, he also allowed the 50% target shared by most leading industrial countries to appear in the final G8 communiqué. Merkel and Blair have called the agreement a ‘huge success’, emphasising that the US was now at the heart of the attempts to reach a worldwide deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. Some campaigners welcomed the compromise as an important advance; others said it was weak and did not go far enough because they omitted the target of limiting temperature increases to 2C (3.6F). The UN called the deal a step towards a broader, worldwide pact by 2009. But Greenpeace said the deal was clearly not enough to prevent dangerous climate change. Bush is still not committed to achieving the 50% cut in emissions on 1990 levels, but has agreed to give it ‘serious consideration’. Full report in The Times

After the meeting, leaders of China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa said that they backed the G8 goal of launching talks on a long-term UN deal to combat global warming that will be hosted in Indonesia in December, reports The Washington Post. The leaders said that they remained \'committed to contribute our fair share to tackle climate change\'. The developing nations said that they called on \'all parties to actively and constructively participate in the negotiations on a comprehensive agreement\' for launching talks on a long-term climate deal. Full report in The Washington Post

Europe is moving toward making significant changes to its emissions-trading system that could force large polluters to pay for most, if not all, permits to produce climate-changing gases, notes a report in The New York Times. According to a statement, the governments of the EU plan to ask the European Commission to propose modifying the current framework, known as cap and trade, by including auction and benchmarking components that would reduce corporate influence over pollution permits after 2012, when a crucial period of the present system expires. The post-2012 changes might give the European Commission greater power to impose overall caps on national governments. At present it must approve the allocations that each member country makes for its biggest polluters. Full report in the New York Times

Staying in Europe, where Margot Wallstrom, Environment Commissioner of the EU, says any new EU Constitution should include a declaration on its role in fighting climate change. However, a report in the Financial Times notes that the EU’s tackling of global warming has not been matched in other areas, a fact lamented by green groups. While tackling climate change, the commission has largely ignored biodiversity, illegal logging and a host of other issues. The EU’s fishing policy remained a disgrace, groups said, with subsidy-built fleets vacuuming the seas empty. Full report in the Financial Times