by Jbs072209 h3 — July 24, 2009—The leaders of the world’s countries with the largest economies, including the United States and the European Union, have agreed to slash global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, with the intent to hold global warming at less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to news from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
At last week’s meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the nations’ leaders agreed that developed countries should reduce their aggregate GHG emissions to at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, while the world as a whole should cut its GHG emissions in half.
The G8 leaders acknowledged the 2C limit and recognized that global GHG emissions “need to peak as soon as possible and decline thereafter” to hold global warming below that limit. The G8 leaders also pledged to take the lead in accelerating the transition toward a low-carbon economy, including various measures to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The G8 meeting was also expanded to include other major economic powerhouses from throughout the world for the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (.pdf file), which included the G8 plus Australia, Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, and South Africa.
That larger group also recognized the 2C limit for global warming and acknowledged that global and national GHG emissions should peak “as soon as possible,” but also declared that the peak in GHG emissions should occur later for developing countries. The members of the major economies also established a global partnership to drive the development of low-carbon, climate-friendly technologies.
