Agreement on climate change unlikely at G8-G5 meet

I / Italy July 8, 2009, 16:54 IST

An early agreement on climate change between the industrialised G-8 countries and the emerging major economies of G-5 appears unlikely with the developed world focusing more on the current economic downturn than on setting goals for reducing global warming.

India and China, among the major emerging economies, are said to be reluctant on agreeing with the industrialised West on climate change without the developed nations committing themselves to targets on greenhouse gas emissions and technology transfer on controlling pollution and its funding.

Meeting in this mountain town, which was wrecked by an earthquake in April, leaders grappled with the joint declaration of tomorrow's summit of G-8 with the outreach countries of G-5 in which issues like replacement of dollar with SDRs as international currency by China and Russia being relegated to the background.

On the global economic crisis, the draft statement talks of significant risks that are there for the economic and financial stability and warned against "exit strategies" from stimulus and growth packages once recovery is assured.

The G-8 summit with G-5, including countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, for which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is here, comes against the backdrop of the G-20 meeting in Washington in November and the London summit in April when it was decided to inject trillions of dollars for global economic recovery.