The G8 leaders have made some progress towards meaningful action on climate change, but advances have been limited on certain key issues, particularly on emissions reduction targets.

The Summit Declaration agrees the need to take “strong and early action to tackle climate change” and accepts the science of climate change. This is progress for the US, which has been skeptical on this under the Bush presidency.

The G8 countries have agreed the need to launch negotiations in Bali in December of this year “with a view to achieving a comprehensive post 2012 agreement” and that a global agreement should be reached under the UNFCCC by 2009. This is a significant step forward in agreeing a timetable towards a post 2012 agreement. Also significant was the recognition that those most economically advanced countries must take the lead in tackling climate change and the recognition that any action taken by developing countries could take different forms.

The disappointments were in the substantive details. The EU’s goal of limiting global average temperature increases to 2ºC did not gain the support of the G8 leaders, despite increasing evidence that impacts of climate change even below this target may be significant and negative.

The target of “at least halving of global emissions by 2050” was supported only by the EU, Canada and Japan, and of these, only the EU speaks in terms of a 1990 baseline (with the increases in global emissions since 1990, later base years imply less stringent targets). There was nothing that suggested agreement on the need for developed countries to take on binding absolute emissions reductions targets, rather “national circumstances” were highlighted, which leaves open approaches with lower environmental integrity, such as pure technology fora, as favored by the US.

While there was language acknowledging the need for global emissions to peak and then decline, no timeline was defined. To be consistent with keeping global average temperatures below 2ºC this peak needs to occur within the next 10-15 years, and agreement on this by the G8 was an early goal of the German presidency.

The progress that has been made is a good step forward, particularly in light of the positioning of some participants before the Summit; but to avoid dangerous climate change, more is needed.