Global warming agreement to be ratified today

Officials from the G8 nations and major emerging economies such as India and China have agreed to a final text on global warming that should be ratified by the leaders today.

The text states the problem requires urgent action and encourages countries to pursue clean forms of energy. But it does not set targets for reducing the carbon emissions that scientists say are causing the world to heat up.

"The word Kyoto will feature [but] it won't contain any numbers," said Bernd Pfaffenbach, the official responsible for Germany's G8 preparations. France and others had been hoping to include an explicit reference in the declaration to the Kyoto Protocol and how to proceed when the accord expires in 2012.

Activists have said a failure to agree on targets for reducing emissions would render any final G8 agreement ineffective.

But some see any recognition by the administration of United States President George W. Bush of the science behind climate change as a key step.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said after a breakfast meeting with Bush that differences between the US and other industrialised nations over Kyoto would not be resolved, but he hoped to build consensus on the way to tackle global warming in the future.

"We are not going to resolve every single issue at the G8 summit in relation to this. What we can do is narrow the issues down," Blair said.

He had stressed the need to move on from Kyoto, which the US has refused to implement.

"There's no point in going back over the Kyoto debate," he said. "That's an argument that there's been and we can't resolve that. What it's about is seeing whether it would be possible in the future to bring people back into a consensus together, not just America, Europe and Japan, but also the emerging economies. Can we do that? I don't know, but it's important we begin a process of dialogue."

Kaoru Ishikawa, an official with Japan's delegation said the G8 leaders and those of five other countries attending the meeting - China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa - agreed over lunch on the importance of tackling global warming and reducing energy consumption, and talked about the importance of technology in that effort, as well as the significance of dialogue between industrialised nations and emerging economies.

A Russian expert said the final document would represent a compromise on climate change and included balanced language.

"It presents the problem of climate change as a global problem for mankind ... and the need for the G8 to play a leading role" in reducing emissions, Alexander Bedritsky, president of the World Meteorological Organisation, told reporters.

He said the G8 nations should stress the need to substitute cleaner energy sources for those that cause heavy emissions of greenhouse gases, such as coal. Russia, for example, is working on development of hydrogen fuel for industrial uses and has advocated expanding the use of nuclear energy.

It is also trying to expand gas supplies to Europe from its Gazprom giant, the largest natural gas producer in the world.

"The fact that we can sell energy will be to our advantage in the future," Bedritsky said. "We sell gas and give Europe the chance to leave coal behind."

France had said it would not accept a deal that made no clear reference to the science behind climate change.

Oil prices featured prominently in discussions yesterday after hitting US$62 ($92) a barrel this week, despite expectations that leaders would appeal for more stable prices and more freedom for oil companies to invest in oil-rich countries.

There were no plans to include any comment on currencies in the economic communique.

G8 leaders were also due to discuss foreign policy issues, particularly the Middle East, although they were not expected to make any major announcements.

- Reuters and Independent