G8. Chinese president Hu Jintao flies back to Beijing. some say...

[demoleft]

...that the global warming commitments of Obama and europe would have put him in a too embarassing disagreement with US.

a strong carbon tax on imported goods from countries that do not engage against global warming may be in the agenda of the western governments.
anyway, it is the first time that a world leader leaves the G8 like this, as far as my memory goes.

indeed, commentators here in italy hint at the substancial "failure" of the G8 summit on this topic, though they recognize that the tensions in china are good reason for him to be back home.

china has surpassed the US in CO2 emissions, but everybody knew and knows they won't draw back on their model of development. and so won't india. in percentage, the chinese emissions pro-capite are still low compared to the western countries, and this gives china and india an alibi to go on.

anyway, the results of the CO2 cuts policies in Europe have been a failure, so far. good that Obama gave a new course to the US, but it's clear that the G8 summits are too weak an event to really to tackle on the topic.

it's about new relations in the global market now - it's about making low emissions attractive for a country.
and so far, china and india do not find it particularly advantageous.

the BBC report on this first day is a bit too optimistic, i find.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8141352.stm

(just a line on the chinese president leaving...)

real subject for obama is africa and poor countries. there the US leader must show his muscles.
we'll see.

ciao DUers.

[Johonny]

1. His country is having open armed conflict atm

so he might have some other things going on.

[demoleft]

2. no doubt. n/t

[DCKit]

3. Mandatory G-8 carbon tarriffs on China's exports would have the same effect.

Their trade would collapse and they'd have to shutter the polluting factories anyway. Overall, it would hurt their economy far worse than playing along.

Besides, who really believes any country (besides Iceland) is in any position to actually follow the guidelines? It's just lip-service and politics.