G8 nations agree to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent; reporters revise gloomy stories

The leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed today to cut their greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050 and to try to prevent global warming from exceeding 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. The White House announced the agreements this afternoon, following days of gloomy media predictions that the summit would fail to produce an agreeement. A story in Der Spiegel Monday blamed the U.S. for blocking progress, and Reuters prematurely reported this morning that the summit was a failure, requiring their story to be revised like so:
Reuters had predicted China and India, which are not members of the G8, would scuttle the agreement by refusing to agree to a 50 percent worldwide reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. But the G8 settled on those numbers anyway, speculating that their own 80 percent reduction would satisfy demands by India and China that developed nations do more to reduce their contribution.
The G8 nations produce about 60 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from energy production, with the U.S. responsible for about half that. The other members are France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The G8 nations hoped to reach agreement to set the stage for the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December.
While the 2 Celsius goal was adopted for the first time by the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada, it had already been agreed in 1996 by the European Union and its G8 members Germany, Britain, France and Italy.
The G8 statement also failed to pinpoint a base year for the 80 percent reduction — saying it should be “compared to 1990 or more recent years” — meaning the target was open to interpretation. “The world will recognize that today in Italy we have laid the foundations for a Copenhagen deal that is ambitious, fair and effective,” said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.