Making heads or tails of the G8 and the Major Economies Forum in Italy

by Jake Schmidt

If you aren't in Italy you might not realize, but two events are occurring on global warming pollution where leaders of the 17 largest emitting countries are trying to make progress in the run-up to Copenhagen (this December).

The first event is the annual Group of Eight (G8) which brings together the 8 largest industrialized countries and now regularly has global warming on the agenda (as I discussed last year here). The second is the "Leaders Summit" of the Major Economies Forum (as I discussedhere) which brings together the world's 17 largest emitting countries. -- The G8 declaration has been released on July 8th (available here) while the Major Economies Forum statement was released on July 9th (available here).

These meetings are notorious for taking small steps and are often criticized as being "big on grand statements and small on detailed actions". But how often do you get the leaders of the world's biggest countries in one place making joint political declarations? And given the critical need for Heads of Government to weigh-in if we are going to have any chance of success in Copenhagen (as I discussed here), these events come at an important juncture. Continued...

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Bush: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter"

by The Environmentalist Staff

George W. Bush's farewell to his G8 counterparts would have sounded like an accusation by environmentalists, had it not come from the U.S. President who made this statement to the stunned G8 leaders:

President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

President Bush made the private joke in the summit's closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry.

Bush's "in your face" farewell was presented both after the outgoing U.S. president blocked specific numerical targets in the G8's endorsement of a cut in greenhouse gases and after Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Space Science's Institute announced to the G8 that the atmosphere had exceeded safe C02 limits (safe being less than 350ppm; the atmosphere at 385 and rising).

This also comes as the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, while touting his own green "credentials," aligns with oil industry donations in return for his support of offshore drilling; something even McCain acknowledges will not lower gas prices for up to seven years.

And as McCain's (now under the bus) economic adviser, former Texas Senator, Phil Gramm -- whose initial support of the "Enron loophole" while his wife served on the Enron Board not only led to California's manufactured energy crisis, but was what opened the door for oil speculators to push up the price of gas, and whose involvement with UBS Swiss Bank coincided with his push to deregulate the mortgage industry, leading to he current sub-prime housing crisis -- states that the economic woes caused by his own actions are: "whining" by the American people and a "mental" recession.

To which Barack Obama replied:

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G8 leaders endorse fifty percent emmisions cut, but with no specific targets

by Janet Ritz

The 2008 G8 Summit has ended with an agreement among the principals to endorse cutting greenhouse gas emissions fifty percent by 2050. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, host of the meeting, added a request that countries reduce their mid-term greenhouse gas emissions prior to standards being set.

The G8 rich countries said on Tuesday they want to work with the nearly 200 states involved in U.N. climate change talks to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The final climate communique agreed by the Group of Eight leaders at a summit in northern Japan also said mid-term goals would be needed to achieve the shared goal for 2050, but gave no numerical targets.

This puts the adaptation of actual standards within the United Nations' effort to construct a follow-up to the Kyoto Accord,the ongoing negotiations of which are set to conclude in December, 2009 at Copenhagen.

The G8 endorsement follows a letter sent to the Japanese Prime Minister by NASA's James Hansen, citing new data that showed the climate had exceeded safe C02 levels (safe maximum at 350 ppm; current level is at 385 ppm) and urging the Prime Minister Fukuda to take the lead at the G8 to set specific targets. The language of the G8 statement was worded so as not to require specific targets, which will doubtless raise questions among both environmentalists and businesses that have been asking for those targets in an effort to effectively plan for future production.

The lack of specific wording was seen as a result of U.S. resistance:

U.S. President George W. Bush has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding targets unless big polluters such as China and India rein in their emissions as well.

India and China are polluters, a problem exacerbated by China's growing usage of coal fired plants and both countrys' increasing thirst for oil (charts by Dr. James Hansen, NASA):

The picture becomes more G8 centric with per capita C02 emissions by country, reflecting the individual carbon footprint within each population:

James Hansen to the G8: We've passed safe C02 levels

By The Environmentalist Staff

Cross-posted on The Huffington Post

On the eve the annual G8 Summit where NASA's Dr. James Hansen will announce that we've passed safe C02 levels (safe being maximum 350 ppm; we're now at 385 ppm), Hansen has penned a comprehensive letter (PDF) to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, host of the G8 Summit, requesting his leadership in addressing his findings:

Dear Prime Minister [Fukuda],

Your leadership, and continued leadership by Japan, is needed on the matter of climate change, a matter with ramifications for life on our planet, including all species. Prospects for today’s children, and especially the world’s poor, hinge upon success in stabilizing climate. ~snip~

Japan has been a strong supporter of actions to mitigate dangerous climate change, including the Kyoto Protocol. It is not Japan’s fault that international action has failed so far to slow emission of dangerous gases. But as the host for the upcoming G8 meeting, you can initiate discussion of an approach that could meet the challenge humanity faces.

The past approach, and extensions now under discussion, are fatally flawed and would doom our children and grandchildren to an increasingly impoverished life on a more desolate planet. Clear thinking and bold leadership of the international community are essential in the next 1-2 years to change the course of human history.

The letter, which includes extensive supporting data, opens with current climate status: the loss of sea ice, the approaching tipping points, the effects on people and wildlife, the unstoppable sea level rise, shifting of climate zones, species extinctions, loss of glaciers, water supply for hundreds of millions, droughts and forest fires, rains and floods, intensified thunderstorms, tornadoes and tropical storms.

My address tomorrow to the United Nations University G8 Symposium summarizes scientific data revealing that the safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is no more than 350 ppm (parts per million), and is likely less than that. Implications for energy policy are profound, as atmospheric CO2 is already 385 ppm.

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