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9 July 2008 - One aspiration of the three-day G8 summit in Japan had been to achieve a breakthrough on climate change, but when the meeting came to a close today there was little evidence that progess had been made on this contentious subject.
Hopes had been raised yesterday when the leaders of the G8 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the USA) agreed to "consider and adopt&the goal of achieving at least 50 per cent reduction of global emissions by 2050".
They also acknowledged that this "global challenge" could only be met by a "global response".
The agreement was hailed as "major progress" and a significant development in moving the climate change debate forward.
However, hope was short-lived as leaders of the world's big emerging economies, in particular China and India, who had been invited to the final day of the summit, failed to give their support to the target of halving carbon emissions by mid-century.
Instead in the final G8 communiqué, the world's largest polluters agreed on the need for "deep cuts" in greenhouse gas emissions, without setting any specific targets.
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