The G8 summit in Gleneagles has closed missing a major opportunity to tackle dangerous climate change.
The communiqué states: "Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe," and that they will act with "resolve and urgency" to reduce emissions.
Yet the leaders have not specified any targets or timetable. In his press conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair said the G8 countries will meet in November for further discussions and climate change will be a topic for discussion at next year's G8 summit is Russia.
The scientific community has given an unequivocal signal that urgent and radical action is needed to cut emissions and stabilise the climate. The G8 has failed to acknowledge this warning.
Speaking from Gleneagles, Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale said: "The people who will most immediately pay the price for this failure will be the poor people in Africa whose lives are already being damaged by climate change and the increased droughts, floods and hunger it brings."
Despite spin from the British government it is clear that there has been no change in the US position and it remains alone in resisting the urgent need for action.
"We applauded Tony Blair's decision to put climate change on the agenda at Gleneagles, but sadly he hasn't achieved what he intended," said Stephen. "He wanted to get Bush to commit to urgent action. Instead there has been no real change in the original positions and President Bush is isolated from the 12 other countries who have all emphasised the need for tough targets to reduce CO2 emissions."
The communiqué included a statement affirming that the countries that have already ratified Kyoto would continue to work within that framework. The US remains outside. The conference also saw a strong statement from significant developing countries (the G5 - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) stating that an improvement on the Kyoto Protocol, plus a real commitment to share sustainable energy technology with developing countries, are the essential next steps.
"The developing countries are already involved in dialogue through Kyoto, and Kyoto is already addressing the issue of moving on action after 2012. Nobody is against dialogue, but there's no way it's a replacement for action," said Stephen.
This virtual split means that the next opportunity for real progress will be through the UK presidency of the European Union at the first Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. This will take place in November in Montreal.
The seven European leaders need to strengthen the international position on the urgency of climate change and need to implement strict targets to try to stabilise climate change.
