Global warming accord spells lifestyle changes - Yahoo! News

Global warming accord spells lifestyle changes - Yahoo! News: "Lacking that mid-term commitment, the developing countries rejected a draft statement calling for halving emissions by 2050 — even though the G-8 agreed in a separate draft document to cut emissions in the industrial countries by 80 percent.

That long-term ambition 'is too far off to matter — poor people are being hit today,' said Antonio Hill, of the nonprofit Oxfam International.

Nonetheless, the developing countries responded with movement on their own, agreeing in a draft statement to more specific language than they have used in the past to curb the increase of their emissions from their normal growth path.

If they receive substantial help with funds and technology, they said, they would take actions 'whose projected effects on emissions represent a meaningful deviation from business as usual.'

Despite these steps forward on both sides, an impasse remains in the negotiations leading to the U.N. conference in Copenhagen between the competing demands of the industrial and developing countries.

The G-8's acceptance of the 2 degree limit is 'a sign they have woken up from a long phase of denial. But they have completely failed to outline what immediate action they will take to achieve this goal,' the WWF environmental group said in a statement.

'Without a clear path for emission reductions, the 2 degree statement will just join a long list of broken promises,' it said."