The United States appears to have rejected out of hand Germany’s bid to agree global cuts in carbon emissions at the G8 summit next month, according to the Reuters news agency.

Berlin's goals for the meeting in Heiligendamm include a G8 commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions to half of 1990 levels by 2050.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has already appeared gloomy about the prospects of a deal, saying yesterday that preliminary talks at the EU-Russia summit and in meetings with other G8 members had been difficult.

Today it appeared that Ms Merkel's pessimism was justified, as Reuters reported that it had seen a copy of the US's uncompromising comments, written in red ink on the draft statement of the summit's aims.

Expert View

Mrs Merkel will not be too disappointed that the tough US position has leaked out. Anything she can get at the summit will be viewed as a bonus now.

David Charter

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“The US still has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement,” the US states, according to Reuters.

“The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple ’red lines’ in terms of what we simply cannot agree to.

“This document is called FINAL, but we never agreed to any of the climate language present in the document.

“Our comments and reasoning are in the document below. We have tried to ’tread lightly’ but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position.”

As well as cutting global emissions, Germany also wants agreement to curb the rise in average temperatures this century to 2C, and to raise energy efficiency in power and transport by 20 per cent by 2020.

German officials have said that, despite lobbying from Ms Merkel and Tony Blair, President Bush does not appear likely to agree to any of the German climate aims.

The leak seems to confirm their concerns. Washington not only rejects all of the climate goals, but also rejects language in the draft that supports an extension of carbon trading, because acceptance of it would imply acceptance of emission caps.

The host nation of the G8 begins to circulate drafts of the statement well in advance of the actual meeting of the Group of Eight nations. Comments from each nation's lead negotiator are relayed back through their country's ambassador in the host capital, in an attempt to beat out common ground that can form the basis of a joint communique issued at the end of the G8 summit.

It is normal for the host nation to be able to boast some progress towards the goals it set out in advance of the summit. But in this case, it appears that Germany's goals have been categorically turned down.

Yesterday Sigmar Gabriel, the German Environment Minister, warned that Germany was prepared to block decisions on other issues unless the US and other G8 members made concessions on the environment.

He said that this issue was the toughest nut to crack.

“America doesn’t want to commit to firm goals. We can’t put the global future of our children at risk because of the narrow-mindedness of individual negotiating partners.”

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