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WORLD: Obama calls world leaders to nuclear security summit
Paul Thompson and Paul Waugh9 Jul 2009
Barack Obama is to call a summit on nuclear security in Washington next March.
The US president revealed the initiative as G8 leaders holding a summit in Italy issued a statement reaffirming that they were "deeply concerned" by Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Obama and his fellow leaders also condemned North Korea's recent nuclear test and missile launches.
The G8 - Britain, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia - also warned Iran that arrests of foreigners and journalists were "unacceptable" in the wake of the unrest which followed last month's disputed presidential elections.
Hopes of a global deal on climate change were receding today after China and India attacked the G8 for failing to set interim targets to cut emissions.
Gordon Brown hailed as "historic" an agreement last night that the world's richest countries would cut their carbon output by 80 per cent 2050. But as Mr Obama tried to hammer out a deal with non-G8 nations alongside the summit today, the developing countries refused to sign up to a pact without a concrete pledge for interim 2020 cuts and more cash to help poorer countries improve their energy efficiency.
The G8 agreed last night to try to limit global warming to two degrees celsius and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent.
"The world will recognise that today in Italy we have laid the foundations for a Copenhagen deal that is ambitious, fair and effective," Mr Brown said. He has proposed a $100billion global fund to help developing countries tackle the climate challenge, but there was no agreement.
Antonio Hill of Oxfam said: "The G8 might have agreed to avoid cooking the planet by more than 2C but they made no attempt to turn down the heat any time soon. 2050 is too far off to matter, poor people are being hit today. We must see emissions cuts by 2020."
Greenpeace said that without a clear plan or money to cut emissions, the G8 had not helped break the deadlock.
Mr Obama's envoy on climate change, Todd Stern, said he was still hopeful an agreement with developing countries could be reached before December, when a new international treaty on climate change will be hammered out in Copenhagen. "This is still a work in progress, but we don't think that is something that is off the table," Mr Stern said.
The G8 leaders failed to agree a concerted strategy to boost the global economy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted the talks to focus on an "exit strategy" to plot an unwinding of the massive fiscal stimulus embarked on by many countries to combat the recession.
But others, such as Mr Brown, argued that such talk was premature when the world still faced the danger of a "double-dip" downturn, with rising oil prices threatening to choke off any recovery.
Reader views (2)
Wow! That funny bloke in Iran who just shot and tortured many of his own citizens for wanting a legitimate vote must have been terrified to read that Obama was 'deeply concerned' by his nuclear programme. I mean 'concerned' would have been bad enough, but by golly, Obama, having just agreed to unilaterally reduce nuclear and arms development in his own country, is now 'deeply' concerned. Well, that should do it. Well done Barry!
- Stephen Rothbart, Prague Czech Republic, 09/07/2009 15:31
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If this meeting, that you glorify by calling it a 'summit', was in the least bit serious they wouldn't have taken their WAGs with them.
- Desperate Dan, London, UK, 09/07/2009 12:48
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