G8's energy for climate a welcome sign 

Source: ReutersFrom L-R: US President Barack Obama, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev pose for a photograph at the G8 summit in L'Aquila

It was interesting to hear leaders at this week's G8 meeting in Italy talking tough and with some vigour about the need to tackle climate change.

Over the last year the issue has generally taken a back seat to the global financial crisis at major international summits.

The fact that it's back at the forefront of G8 leaders minds is not only good for the planet, but also a positive sign for the world economy too.

If leaders are confident enough to seriously trying to restart debate on climate change, then they must be surely be less worried about the threat of a financial meltdown. Right?

Certainty this week's summit, whist still concentrating heavily on economic issues, is a far cry from the London summit last November where a full scale meltdown was still very much a risk.

Markets are still up over 20% since March and whilst there hasn't been radical improvement in the world economy the bad news has slowed and the rate of decline has stabilised...be it in consumer confidence, housing and trade.

So how excited should we be about the climate change initiatives being put forward in Italy?

Well for those looking for some strong action on the issue, not hugely. However, there are some developments.

According to Reuters, rich and poor nations acknowledged at the G8 that temperature rises should be limited to two degrees Celsius - a goal that would require deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

And G8 nations set a new goal of cutting their overall emissions by 80% by 2050.

In addition, in complete contrast to his predecessor, President Obama also talked strongly about the need for the world to tackle the climate change. This is an important signal from such a large emitter as the US.

But there were some missteps too, with the G8 reportedly failing to persuade China and India and other developing nations to sign up for a goal of halving world emissions by 2050.

This is one of the major hurdles that confront the world when it comes to working out who should share the burden of cutting emissions.

The G8 comments do at least give the issue some momentum in the lead up to the Copenhagen conference in December. It's at the Copenhagen conference that the world must try to replace the ageing Kyoto Protocol with a new treaty on emissions reductions.

Copenhagen is where the real action (or lack of) will be.

Still, talking climate change has to be welcome change from stressing about the global financial meltdown....