http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070900651.html?hpid=moreheadlines

For the first time in nearly 8 years, President George W. Bush has indicated that it is a priority to join other industrialized nations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Previously, President Bush had rejected the Kyoto protocol and his representative in Bali came back with nothing to show. However, at the G8 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, he indicated that the U.S. would be likely to participate in the upcoming talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the Kyoto successor will be negotiated.

The 16 countries, along with the heads of the European Commission, the United Nations and the World Bank, met in an unusual meeting brokered by President Bush during the last day of the Group of Eight summit on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It was aimed at trying to come together behind a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the 1999 pact aimed at curbing carbon emissions.

On Tuesday, Bush agreed for the first time to join other major industrialized countries in setting a goal to reduce emissions. He and other leaders of the Group of Eight countries forged a joint communique that declares the countries will "consider and adopt" reductions of at least 50 percent as part of a new U.N. treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. The step was the most recent sign of a gradual shift in Bush's approach to combating global warming.

The G8 leaders also said they expect developing countries such as China and India, which are also major greenhouse-gas polluters, to promise "meaningful" actions to reduce emissions. That has been a key objective for Bush but presents an obstacle: Those countries have said repeatedly that the industrialized world, having caused most of the problem historically, must bear the greatest burden, while they needed more relaxed rules to pursue economic development.

Washington Post; July 9, 2008

Submitted by B. Shapiro