In spite of demonstrating their resolve to tackle the world's most pressing issues by releasing a series of statements, the Group of Eight (G8) once again stopped short of pledging immediate and concrete action instead of words, to the disappointment of many.
While it is a positive sign the leaders are hammering home their determination to tackle the issues, the G8 nations, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the world economy, should turn their words into action, analysts say.
The G8 leaders were gathering in the northern Japanese resort of Toyako for their annual summit, as the world is experiencing financial turmoil, fuel and food price hikes and a potentially disastrous rise in global temperatures.
NO BREAKTHROUGH ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is a major issue discussed in the working session on the second day of the three-day summit.
In a statement, the G8 leaders said they "seek to share" the vision of the goal of achieving at a least 50 percent reduction of global emissions by 2050.
While declaring "each of us will implement ambitious mid-term goals in order to achieve absolute emissions reduction," the G8 nations failed to specify what their mid-term goals are.
And the statement only set a long-term goal for chopping global emissions rather than targets for each of the G8 nations.
Moreover, it failed to mention a base year for the reduction, as some analysts pointed out.
