G7 urges big global emission cuts
Print Edition
G7 leaders called at a summit yesterday for a “decarbonization of the global economy” and said deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed over the course of this century.
Ahead of a UN climate summit in Paris late this year, the Group of Seven major industrialized nations urged global emission cuts at “the upper end of” the 40-70 percent range by mid-century compared to 2010 levels. The G7 also reaffirmed the goal of limiting global warming in the 21st century to 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, first agreed at a 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen.
Scientists warn that on current trends, Earth is on track for double that target.
The goal in cutting heat-trapping greenhouse gases is to slow global warming which is blamed for melting the planet’s ice caps and glaciers, raising sea levels and causing more violent storms, floods and droughts.
“Urgent and concrete action is needed to address climate change,” the G7 leaders said in a final statement after a two-day summit in Germany. “We emphasize that deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions are required with a decarbonization of the global economy over the course of this century.”
US President Barack Obama said: “We continued to make progress toward a strong climate agreement in Paris.”
The G7 industrialized countries — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — make up about 10 percent of the world population but one quarter of global emissions.
The G7 nations also said they were committed to jointly mobilize financing from public and private sources for a previously agreed US$100-billion fund to finance climate efforts in poor countries from 2020. They also committed “to doing our part to achieve a low-carbon global economy in the long-term including developing and deploying innovative technologies striving for a transformation of the energy sectors by 2050.”
Environmental groups broadly welcomed the fact that the G7 meeting at Elmau Castle resort had acknowledge that “the days of fossil fuels and carbon pollution are numbered.”
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