The Group of Eight industrialized nations on Tuesday endorsed halving global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
in a declaration praised by the Canadian government. Environmentalists, however, expressed concerns that the statement does not mention a global baseline year for tracking greenhouse gas emission cuts or lay out any international midterm goals, except to mention a need for individual countries to develop their own plans. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said getting the stamp of approval for long-term carbon cuts from two previous holdouts — the United States and Russia — signals a major breakthrough. "This is the first time either of those countries have conceded the necessity of having a long-term, mandatory goal for reduction," he said in an interview from northern Japan. "There's also now a firm recognition of all countries that to make these objectives effective, even in the long term, we have got to have mandatory participation by all major economies, by all major emitters."
Leaders of the Group of Eight countries — Canada, U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Russia — gathered Tuesday for the second day of a three-day summit in Toyako, a resort town on the northern island of Hokkaido. "We haven't solved the world's problems here but we've taken big steps forward," federal Environment Minister John Baird told CBC Newsworld Tuesday in an interview from Japan.
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