Heavy Security Surrounds G8 Talks
This week's G8 summit will be held in the resort town of Heiligendamm, Germany.
June 5, 2007 — -- Germany will host this week's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, a small Baltic Sea resort in the northern part of the country.
The normally sleepy seaside resort has been transformed into a well-fortified stronghold.
Leaders from the world's eight most industrialized nations -- the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Russia -- arrive today for three days of discussions on the world's most pressing problems, including climate change, proposals for aid to Africa and what to do about Iran's nuclear program, to name but a few.
High on the agenda of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who currently holds the rotating G8 chair, is global warming and developing a plan to cut greenhouse gases. She wants to see an agreement on binding emission reductions, cutting emissions in half by 2050. The United States is resisting such a proposal.
In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine on what the magazine calls "the climate dispute," Merkel said, "I'm not expecting a solution this week. Our opinions have long differed about how to limit global warming. You can assume that I will not agree to allow any established scientific findings like the UN report on that topic to be watered down."
In an open letter, environmental group Greenpeace called for Merkel to "take the lead in drastically cutting emissions and not to give in to U.S. President George W. Bush's suggestion to increase efforts to use new technologies and new bio-fuels instead."
"The G8 countries account for over 80 percent of historic greenhouse gas emissions and continue to emit over 40 percent of CO2 emissions today. Per capita emissions in the G8 countries are among the highest in the world, led by the U.S., which emits around 20 tons of CO2 per person per year," Greenpeace climate policy expert Daniel Mittler told ABCNEWS.com.
Merkel told Der Spiegel she believed an international agreement on global warming was crucial.
"We Europeans are convinced that we should agree to international targets and to structure our measures accordingly. I believe that we can bundle these measures together under the auspices of the United Nations," Merkel told the magazine.
