'Plus five' say they will do fair share on emissions

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Fiona Harvey in Heiligendamm
Big developing countries who met the G8 on Friday are "prepared to accept commitments" on emissions, according to Angela Merkel, German chancellor and host of the G8 summit, but they remain opposed to targets for cuts such as those imposed on developed countries under the Kyoto protocol.
The five big developing countries – China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa – fear that specific reduction targets will hurt their economic growth.
Instead, the countries signed a statement agreeing to contribute their "fair share to tackle climate change in order to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".
The question of what is a "fair share" will be the crux of a United Nations conference in December in Bali.
The G8 committed on Thursday to begin negotiations at Bali on a successor to the Kyoto protocol, whose current provisions expire in 2012. The US surprised observers by signing up to the deal, as it had previously blocked attempts to start such talks. But the country also made it clear it would not accept an agreement that does not include commitments from developing countries.
Hu Jintao, president of China, promised Beijing's co-operation on reducing emissions, but called for flexibility in the way that limits were handled by poor countries. He said: "Developing countries should adopt measures in light of their own conditions."
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil said the "plus five" countries were clear that the G8's commitment to climate change negotiations should not "be an instrument to inhibit the growth of poor or developing countries".
Developing countries argue they should not have to bear the same responsibility for emissions cuts as rich nations because although some now have emissions on a similar scale to rich countries – China is about to overtake the US as the world's biggest emitter – their per capita emissions are much lower.
In addition, they bear much less responsibility for the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, which were produced by developed countries in the process of industrialisation.
Mr Lula da Silva said: "We have to remember that everything we do from here on will not diminish the effect of the gases that are causing global warming today because they are the gases of the past."
The G8 agreement and the plus five declaration both contain an endorsement of emissions trading as a mechanism for reducing greenhouse gases.
Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the endorsement would buoy the carbon trading markets, worth $30bn last year.
He said: "It says emissions trading is a useful tool, and that is really a breakthrough. The US delegation even a week ago was saying it was not a useful tool. So that's important."
The G8 declaration received a mixed reaction from environmental groups. Some said George W. Bush would use the Bali conference to block agreement on emissions cuts. But others hailed the commitment to start talks on a successor to Kyoto as important progress.
Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement, said: "The US must take part in good faith, not as the wreckers they have been in the past."