– Another big global meeting to try to solve the world’s environmental problems and once again it all amounted to nothing.  I can’t think why I might be surprised.
Here are some other notable meetings (yawn): ➡ ➡
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The G-8 summit in Japan this year seemed more interested in harmony than in making progress on a number of pressing issues. From climate change to world finance, courage was nowhere to be seen.
It was hardly to be expected, but in the end, the G-8 did actually make a bit of progress when it comes to combating climate change. Last year, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel put the issue high up on the agenda for the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, many of her world-leader colleagues were unimpressed. But this year, many of the points she proposed in 2007 were adopted with little opposition. The global warming assessment produced by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for example, was embraced as was the demand that an international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be negotiated under the aegis of the United Nations.
The formulation of the summit’s closing communiqué likewise goes a bit further than one year ago. Whereas last year, G-8 leaders agreed to “seriously consider” halving CO2 emissions by the year 2050, this year, the group agreed to cut emissions by “at least” 50 percent — though no base year was provided against which that cut should be measured.
More… (or less, depending on how you look at it) ➡