Bush, G-8 make progress on climate change
Climate change, the focus of this year's meeting of industrialized nations, is just one on a long list of global issues — from Iran's nuclear weapons program to missile defense — that Bush is trying to push forward at the Group of Eight summit.
With his popularity low at home and fewer than 200 days left in office, Bush is methodically promoting his issues, seemingly ready to accept incremental progress rather than pursuing eye-catching breakthroughs.
The G-8 endorsed cutting global emissions of greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 2050 and called for emitters to set midterm reduction targets.
The White House quickly hailed the G-8 declaration as a validation of Bush's approach.
"This represents substantial progress from last year," said Dan Price, the president's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.
Price said the G-8 acknowledged that it alone cannot effectively address climate change — that contributions from all major economies are required — a position Bush has argued repeatedly.
The president long has insisted that major emerging economies like China and India be included in any global plan to cut emissions. Bush scored a small victory in getting the other big-polluting major economy nations to agree to attend a meeting Wednesday on the sidelines of a summit.
It's unclear, however, whether the heads of state at Wednesday's session will "finalize" a long-term goal for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, as Bush predicted back in September.
Advocates seeking deeper commitments lamented that the countries did set ambitious midterm targets for emissions cuts by 2020.
"At this rate, by 2050 the world will be cooked and the G-8 leaders will be long forgotten," said Antonio Hill, spokesman for Oxfam International, a confederation of organizations that work on climate change, poverty and other causes. "Rather than a breakthrough, the G-8's announcement on 2050 is another stalling tactic," he said.
The G-8 nations are the United States, Japan, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the G-8's agreement would support stalled U.N.-led efforts to craft a new climate change accord at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
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