G-8 Leaders Fail on Climate Plan

We hope it’s not too hot a day in Italy: The New York Times reports that “The world’s major industrial nations and newly emerging powers failed to agree Wednesday on specific cuts in heat-trapping gases by 2050, undercutting an effort to build a global consensus to fight climate change.” Negotiators for the world’s 17 leading polluters dropped a proposal that would cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 50 percent by midcentury and require the most advanced economies to reduce by 80 percent. However, The Washington Post took a more optimistic view of the meeting, since the nations did agree to set a goal of stopping world temperature from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The U.S. missed the opportunity to bring China aboard climate change regulation since President Hu Jintao left early to deal with violence at home.