Europe News

Merkel demands G8 commitments to cut carbon emissions

Jul 5, 2008, 15:13 GMT

Berlin - Speaking just before the G8 summit, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the eight leading industrialized nations to lead by example with cuts in carbon emissions. In her weekly video message, released on Saturday two days before the G8 leaders meet in Toyako, Japan, she said, 'It's clear, and this will be expressed in Toyako, that the industrialized nations have a special responsibility in this.' The chancellor said the European Union had committed itself to 'very demanding targets' without waiting for others. The non-EU members of the G8 are the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia. 'I hope we will be able to make some joint commitments that clearly show that we must reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by at least 50 per cent by the middle of the century,' she said. However the industrialized nations could not achieve this alone. 'We need the emerging economies to help as well,' she said. Merkel said there would be international consultations about soaring world prices for energy. These would be aimed at countering speculation and adjusting production quantities to match demand. 'It's especially important hear that we meet with the emerging economies, by which I mean China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa,' she said. In a guest article to appear on Sunday in a Berlin newspaper, the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag, Merkel said, 'Not just the industrialized nations, but the emerging economies as well must do more to disconnect the linkage between growth and energy consumption.' She also disclosed in the newspaper that the summit would adopt a policy package on world food security. The moves would be based on proposals from Germany 'to achieve both a short-term easing in the acute food-supply crisis and a long- term strategy to increase worldwide farm production.'