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The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 08-07-07
From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <www.ert.gr/>
CONTENTS
[01] Expensiveness and Climate Changes at Focus
[01]
Expensiveness and Climate Changes at Focus
07 Ιουλ 2008 08:30:0
Sources: Reuters
Climate change is high on the agenda of the annual summit of the Group
of Eight rich nations that starts on Monday at a luxury hotel on the
lush northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. China, India and 12 other
countries will join the regular members of the G8, the United States,
Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia, for parts of
the summit. Global inflation driven by soaring food and fuel prices
will be high on a crowded agenda, as will efforts to alleviate African
poverty. The EU, which has agreed to cut emissions by at least 20
percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, wants big polluters to agree
to halve emissions by 2050. Last year, G8 leaders limited themselves to
saying they would "seriously consider" halving emissions by 2050,
without giving a baseline year for cuts. But the United States is
refusing to sign up to any firm targets unless developing economies
such as China and India take steps too. Leaders from several of the
worlds biggest emerging markets, including China and India, will meet
G8 members in Japan on Wednesday to discuss climate change. The EU also
wants the G8 to take the harder step of setting shorter-term goals to
make the process more credible. U.S. President George W. Bush pledged
on Sunday that Japans concerns about North Korean abductions of its
citizens would not be ignored as Washington moved to ease sanctions
against the communist country.
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