U.N. chief rebukes G8 over climate failures

L'AQUILA, Italy — The U.N. chief sharply rebuked the Group of Eight leaders on Thursday for failing to make more commitments to reducing climate change in the near term, saying they must do so if the heavily polluting developing world is to follow suit.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said the industrialized nations must come forward with financing for poorer countries to change their carbon-heavy growth patterns and adapt to the effects of global warming.

"The policies that they have stated so far are not enough, not sufficient enough," Ban said on the sidelines of the G-8 summit. "This is the science. We must work according to the science. This is politically and morally imperative and a historic responsibility for the leaders for the future of humanity, even for the future of planet Earth."

Developing nations are upset at the G-8 for refusing to make more ambitious commitments, meaning that an agreement expected to emerge from a wider meeting of developing and developed nations on Thursday, in their view, will be nothing more than a political pledge to work harder toward crafting a new climate change treaty later this year.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said developing countries wanted a "fair and balanced" negotiation with industrialized countries on curbing greenhouse gas emissions that takes into account poorer countries' need to grow, particularly during the economic downturn.

"I say fair and balanced because it has to treat both the reduction of emissions and adaptation from climate change in the same way," he said in urging the summit to support financing plans that will transfer low-emission technology to the developing world and to help them confront the impact of global warming.

On the first day of their summit Wednesday, the G-8 recognized for the first time that average global temperatures shouldn't exceed 2 degrees Celsius from preindustrial times. But the leaders made no commitments to do anything in the short term to reach that goal and they made no firm financial or technological commitments for poor countries to cope with climate change.

"I sincerely hope and I urge, and I'm going to urge, that the leaders of G-8 are responsible to lead this campaign," Ban said. "They should be able to provide financial support, technological support" so that developing countries can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.