G8 Summit Leaders Wish For Painful 50% Emissions Reduction

Washington, D.C., July 8, 2008—Leaders of the G8 Summit
indicated today they will seek at least a 50 percent reduction in carbon
emissions by 2050, as part of a hoped-for worldwide agreement at the end of
next year.

Statement
by Myron Ebell,
Director of Global Warming and Energy Policy for the Competitive Enterprise
Institute:

"The G8 communiqué shows that agreeing to a replacement for
the Kyoto Protocol will be a very difficult task, and that is a good thing. Kyoto, which is set to expire in 2013, is failing to
reduce emissions in the European Union, Japan,
and Canada
but is still proving costly. Any international agreement that would impose
mandatory energy rationing on all the major economies, including the big
developing countries such as China, India, Brazil, and the United States, would
torpedo world economic growth. It would
make the anemic economic growth of European Union and Japan look
robust. Most importantly, a no-growth
world economy that would consign billions of people to perpetual energy poverty
is not acceptable.

Statement
by Iain Murray, Senior Fellow at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute:

"If global warming is a risk, then clearly we need to go beyond
useless talk about future emissions reduction targets and, instead, find a plan
that works. Bringing the world out of
poverty is the best way to reduce the risks of a changing climate, so the next
G8 summit should take aggressive steps to liberalize trade."

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