Canada trumpets G8 vow to halve emissions by 2050.

Canada continues to tag along as junior partner to the U.S. in avoiding any significant environmental targets. This great leap forward involves no binding targets and does not even bother to set a base year. Half of what year's emissions? Whatever year turns your crank I guess! Oh well they all had a great many course meal. I am not sure if it was Japanese taxpayers who footed the bill or if it was the UN and so all of us.

Canada trumpets G8 vow to halve emissions by 2050
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 11:55 AM ET
CBC News
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.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, centre, and U.S. President George W. Bush, right, pose for a group photo at the G8 summit in in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan on Tuesday. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service)Environmentalists, however, expressed concerns that the statement doesn't mention a global baseline year for tracking greenhouse gas emission cuts or lay out any international midterm goals, instead allowing 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.
Group accuses 3 leaders of blocking 2020 targets
The environmental group Avaaz.org ran a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's Financial Times accusing Harper, U.S. President George Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of blocking emission targets for 2020.
Each leader's face is superimposed on the body of a Hello Kitty drawing, the popular Japanese cartoon character. The ad calls for the leaders to grow up and set targets.
"It's great to talk about targets for 2050 but unless you talk about what's going to happen in the meantime, in 2020, then you're not really aiming for 2050 at all," said Ben Wikler, U.S. campaign director for Avaaz.org.
"In 2050, Mr. Fukuda will be 114 years old and it's difficult to think that his promises about 2050 are meaningful unless he tells us what he's going to do now."
Baird calls agreement a step forward
Federal Environment Minister John Baird told CBC Newsworld Tuesday, in an interview from Japan, that the agreement isn't perfect.
"We haven't solved the world's problems here but we've taken big steps forward," said Baird, adding it marks "substantial progress" since last year's summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.
At that time, G8 leaders agreed to "consider seriously" decisions by the European Union, Japan and Canada to at least halve emissions by 2050 in setting goals for cuts in greenhouse gases.