As you may recall from earlier this week, G8 leaders meeting in Hokkaido, Japan announced they would halve their emissions by 2050. While it wasn’t made explicit in the announcement, Japan’s Prime Minister Fukuda told reporters that the reduction is based on current levels, not 1990 levels, as had been discussed in prior meetings. The 50 percent cut agreed upon is not surprisingly, non-binding.

And not surprisingly, other nations are not impressed. Yesterday, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico, among other major emitters, joined the summit to discuss climate commitments. President Bush astutely pointed out that any successful major agreement will need to include these top emitters.

But the developing countries at the table were not exactly blown away by the weak and distant commitments made on Tuesday, and did not agree to any emissions reductions targets at the meeting. It was the consensus that the developed countries need to lead and assist the rest of the world in making larger emissions cuts in a shorter time span, like in the next ten years. The group of developing and major emitting countries said the same thing as always: they agree to commit to combat climate change in accordance with common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacity.

The Pew Environmental Group pointed out that emissions reductions need to be 80-90 percent below current levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The Union of Concerned Scientists called it a missed opportunity to demonstrate global leadership by the G8 not setting reduction measures for an earlier date of 2020. South African Minister of the Environment Schalkwyk criticized the minimalistic agreement as a regression from what is required to meaningfully address climate change.

All that being said, let's pause for a moment and recognize that this is still a significant milestone. For the first time under the Bush administration, the US has publicly agreed with an international delegation to set emissions reductions targets, and Bush publicly admitted that climate change is a threat that needs to be addressed. Who knows, with this momentum, maybe all those political appointees at the EPA will start believing in climate change.