G7 aims to cut emission by up to 70% by 2050, warns Russia over Crimea

Ahead of the year-end UN global climate summit in Paris, the G7 leaders of the world’s top developed economies agreed to support a global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but couldn’t come up with their own immediate targets.

During the two-day summit held in Bavaria, Germany, the leaders vowed to reduce global greenhouse emission at the upper range of 40%-70% by 2050. They used 2010 as a basic year for their range, recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN climate-change panel.

According to a communiqué issued after the meeting, G7 host and German chancellor Angela Merkel hoped to get the member countries to agree on specific emissions goals.

“We commit to doing our part to achieve a low-carbon global economy in the long-term, including developing and deploying innovative technologies striving for a transformation of the energy sectors by 2050, and invite all countries to join us in this endeavor,” said the communique.

Pressure on Russia

Apart from the global climate issue, the G7 countries — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US — and EU took a firm stance on Russia over its involvement in the conflict in the Eastern Ukraine. Ms Merkel said if needed, the leaders of the G7 nations were ready to strengthen their stand over Russia.

Sending a strong massage, Merkel and the other leaders of the G7 asked Russia and Ukraine to comply with the Feb. 12 ceasefire agreement made in the Minsk, Belarus, which nearly halted fighting in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

Russia dropped out of the grouping, earlier known as the G8, after it was suspended last year over its occupation and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

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