G8 Summit Wraps Up Without Specific Targets

Leaders from the world’s rich and developing nations have agreed to work together towards a long-term reduction of carbon emissions. On the last day of the summit on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the G8 members and developing nations issued a joint statement recognising climate change as one of the great challenges of our time and emphasising that deep cuts in global emissions would be necessary to tackle it. But they failed to bridge their differences on setting specific targets on curbing carbon emissions. The G8 leaders restated their "vision" of cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050 -- a demand rejected by major developing countries India and China.