A G8 summit made scant progress toward a new UN climate treaty due to be agreed in December with some nations back-pedalling on promises of new action even before the end of a meeting in Italy. The little progress drew the wrath of UN chief Ban Ki-moon who rebuked G8 leaders for not doing enough. “This is politically and morally (an) imperative and historic responsibility ... for the future of humanity, even for the future of the planet Earth,” said Ban. Major economies meeting in Italy agreed to restrict global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) – a development that was unthinkable 12 months ago, before Barack Obama was elected president of the US, world's second biggest greenhouse gas emitter. But the G8 rich nations failed to persuade top emitter China and India to join in a push to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 – a blow to efforts to secure a new UN pact by year end. And Canada and Russia appeared to turn their back on the G8's stated aim of cutting its emissions by 80 percent by 2050 within 24 hours of it being announced. “This hasn't given me a huge rush of adrenalin,” said Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate change official, of climate decisions by the G8 summit and a 17-member climate forum of major emitters. “Generally this is careful but useful step forward toward Copenhagen...I'm still confident that the deal can be done,” he said of the UN pact due to be agreed in mid-December. De Boer said he understood a refusal by developing nations to sign up for the G8 goal to halve world emissions by 2050. Asking for action before the rich came up with funding plans and set goals for their own 2020 emissions cuts “was like jumping out of a plane and being assured that you are going to get a parachute on the way down,” he said. And cracks appeared even in the G8 deal to seek cuts of 80 percent by developed nations by 2050. A Russian official said the 80 percent goal was unachievable for Russia. And Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the goal was aspirational and fit Canada's target of cutting emissions by 60 to 70 percent below 2006 levels by 2080. In Washington, Obama's push for quick action by Congress on climate change legislation suffered a setback when the Senate committee leading the drive delayed work on the bill until September.
