Es ist ein beliebtes Ritual, dass Minister und Medien die rituellen G8-Klimaerklärungen als Riesenerfolg und historischen Durchbruch feiern. Dabei sind die meist überkanditelten Versprechungen nicht das Papier wert, auf dem sie geschrieben wurden. Die russische Regierung hat dies heute offen und ehrlich eingestanden: Russia will not be able to achieve the G8 goal of cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the Russian delegation’s sherpa said on Wednesday. Denn in Wirklichkeit planen die Russen ihre Emissionen um 30% zu erhöhen - nicht zu senken! Of all the political pronouncements in recent weeks about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s last week had a touch of the absurd. His plan: Increase his country’s emissions 30 percent by 2020.—Russia refuses to back a target of an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 proposed by other Group of Eight countries, a Kremlin aide said on Wednesday after the first day of the G8 summit in Italy. At a news conference earlier in the day, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the world’s richest nations should cut their emissions by 80% by the middle of the century. Arkady Dvorkovich, who is accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev at the summit in the central Italian mountain town of L’Aquila, told reporters: “We will not sacrifice our economic growth to meet emissions cuts. Economic growth must be effective. Everyone spoke about this.”
He called the 80% target “unacceptable, and probably unattainable.”
