G8 nations fail to keep climate change vows

BERLIN (Reuters) - None of the G8 countries have come closeto fulfilling their pledges to fight climate change with theUnited States, Canada and Russia lagging especially far behind,a study published on Thursday found.

The "G8 Climate Scorecards," compiled by environmentalgroup WWF and Allianz, said Great Britain, France and Germany-- at the top of the rankings -- had failed abysmally toimplement measures to back the goal of cutting carbon dioxideemissions.

"We're not going to be able to fathom what the world may belike in 20 years if we aren't able to reduce emissions," saidRegine Guenther, head of climate policy at the WWF in Germany.

"None of the eight leading industrial nations have takensufficient measures needed to be considered in line with thetarget to limit a worldwide increase in temperatures to 2degrees centigrade," said Niklas Hoehne, the author of thestudy done by ECOFYS research group for WWF and Allianz.

They said leaders of the Group of Eight countries -- whichhave emitted 62 percent of the CO2 in atmosphere -- have talkedabout cutting emissions but largely failed to follow through.

The G8 leaders from the United States, Japan, Germany,Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia will meet in theJapanese resort of Hokkaido for their annual summit next week,where climate change is due to be a top issue on their agenda.

At last year's summit in Germany they agreed to seriouslyconsider a goal of halving global emissions by 2050.

The scorecard offers grim reading, showing all eightcountries have failed to match their words with deeds.

U.S., CANADA, RUSSIA FAIL TEST

The study examined the climate performance by federalgovernments in implementing measures to reduce their emissions.Also included are performances in energy efficiency, renewablesand carbon market development.

The G8 Climate scorecard ranked the United States, Canadaand Russia at the bottom, saying they had "failed the test".

"The United States scores the worst of all G8 countries,being the highest emitter with the highest per capita emissionsand an increasing trend in total emissions," the report said,giving the U.S. "red" ratings in 11 of the 12 categories.

"Canada is second with a very high per capita emissions anda steadily increasing trend in total emissions," it said.Ottawa complained that parts of the report were inaccurate.

"The WWF said Canada's greenhouse gas emissions trends aregoing up and that emissions have increased. Yet for the lasttwo years on record, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions have infact gone down," said Garry Keller, chief spokesman forEnvironment Minister John Baird.

The WWF said Russia ranked "a bit better due to decliningemissions in the early 1990s ... but since 1999 emissions areincreasing steadily and there is hardly any policy in place tocurb emissions".

The study also gave Italy and Japan "red" overall ratings.Emissions from both are well above their Kyoto Protocol targetsand there are few national measures in place to cut emissions.

Britain, France and Germany were put at the top of thescorecard in that order. But all were given only a "yellow"overall rating, falling short of "green" for top scores.

Britain was lauded for keeping emissions below Kyototargets but criticised for deriving only a small share of itspower from renewable sources. France was also praised forgetting its emissions under the Kyoto target.

Germany, which sees itself as a leader in the fight againstclimate change, was ranked third. It was faulted for highemissions from coal-powered plants and transport.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; editingby Frank McGurty)