L'Aquila, Italy - The United States is ready to accept a Group of Eight (G8) goal of limiting global warming to within 2 degrees centigrade, European Union leaders said Wednesday as the annual G8 summit opened in L'Aquila, Italy. "One year ago it was not possible, our American partners did not accept (the targets), now they accept it. So there is progress," EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, said US President Barack Obama had "made references to" the 2-degree target contained in the summit's draft conclusions.
If confirmed, it would be the first time that the club of the world's richest countries had signed up to an overall goal on limiting global warming.
WWF, a pressure group, had identified the US, Canada, Russia and Japan as posing the biggest obstacles to a deal aimed at avoiding catastrophic consequences for the planet.
If confirmed, Obama's move would be "an important step," said WWF head Kim Carstensen.
"I hope they take it seriously," Carstensen said.
WWF is calling for a 40 per cent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 160 billion dollars per year in adaptation and mitigation funding for the world's poorer nations by 2015.
The EU wants G8 members to agree to cut their emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050 compared to their 1990 levels and to set 2020 as the year in which global emissions should peak.
Major developing economies China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil have already agreed to a world goal of limiting climate change to 2 degrees centigrade, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said ahead of the start of G8 talks in central Italy.
