US, Canada rank last in curbing warming, report on G-8 says

With only five months left before a summit on climate change - it's intended to produce a new global pact - none of the Group of Eight nations is doing enough to curb global warming, says a study released yesterday. It ranks the United States and Canada at the bottom.

The G-8 Climate Scorecards, compiled by the environmental group WWF, said even the greenest members of the rich nations' club - Germany, Britain, and France - are not on track to meet a "danger threshold'' of limiting temperature rises to below 2 degrees Celsius.

G-8 leaders gather in Italy next week to discuss the world financial crisis and climate change. They hope to make progress toward a pact on global warming that's due to be signed in Copenhagen in December. It would replace a 1997 Kyoto deal.

They will be joined by members of President Obama's Major Economies Forum.

"While there might be a bailout possibility for the financial system, no amounts of money will save the planet once climate change crosses the danger threshold,'' the WWF's head, James Leape, wrote in the foreword to the report.

Yesterday's annual G-8 scorecard singled out Canada, saying Prime Minister Stephen Harper's conservative government has not implemented a plan to curb emissions, already among the highest in the world per capita and increasing. Canada was not even close to meeting its Kyoto agreements, the WWF said.

The report praised Obama for making clean energy a priority and promoting green legislation, but said US per capita emissions are among the highest in the world and are projected to rise.

"There has been more action in the US in the last four months than in the last three decades - a trend that will hopefully continue,'' the report said.

Obama's government has not embraced the 2 degree Celsius goal adopted by the European Union. Temperatures have already risen by 0.7 percent since the start of the industrial era.

"To avoid or reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change, G-8 leaders must agree to do everything they can to stay below 2 degrees,'' said Kim Carstensen, leader of the WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

At the top of the G-8 rankings was Germany, followed by Britain. The WWF praised Berlin for promoting renewable energy and having an ambitious target of cutting greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2020.

Britain has achieved its Kyoto pact targets because of a transition from coal to gas-fired power stations in the 1990s, but there is room to cut emissions in transportation and power generation, the report said.

France has low emissions per capita for an industrialized nation because of its reliance on nuclear power. The WWF does not support nuclear power concerns over radioactive waste.

Italy has low emissions compared with G-8 partners, mainly because of the structure of its economy, the WWF said, but emissions are rising and the government is not making headway on meeting Kyoto obligations.