Climate breakthrough at G8 summit

“It is a great achievement that the two-degree target was taken up at the meeting with the Major Economies Forum”, said a delighted Fredrik Reinfeldt after the evening’s meeting with the MEF countries.

Early on Thursday evening, the G8 leaders met the heads of state and government of the MEF countries. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen held a joint press briefing after the meeting. All three used terms such as ‘great achievement’ and ‘breakthrough’ to describe the significance of the agreement among the G8 and MEF countries to keep to the two-degree target in the work to limit emissions. However, they were also all agreed that more discussion and a lot of work were required in order to reach the target.

The Danish Prime Minister, who attended the meeting because Denmark will host the international UN Climate Change Conference in December, expressed his hopefulness ahead of the December summit.

“I feel encouraged by our discussions. The fact that all these countries have decided to keep to the two-degree target is a breakthrough, but it is not enough. Now we must translate that target into more concrete short- and long-term targets. We have a lot to do before we meet again in Copenhagen”, said Lars Lokke Rasmussen.