Calling climate change “one of the great global challenges of our time,” the world’s richest nations and emerging powers joined together Wednesday for the first time to commit themselves to long-range cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions, but were split on how to achieve that goal.
The declaration grew out of an unprecedented meeting that brought together 16 nations and the European Union — a group dubbed the “major economies” — around the issue of global warning. The session, organized by President Bush, took place here on the northern Japanese island of Hakkaido, where leaders of the so-called Group of 8 wealthy nations wrapped up three days of meetings on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Group of 8 pledged to “move toward a carbon-free society” by cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases in half by 2050. But poorer countries, led by China and India, refused to sign onto that goal — they are holding out until rich nations like the United States take more aggressive steps to cut pollution over the next decade.
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