The world’s richest nations and emerging economies joined together at a summit on the island of Hokkaidou, Japan to commit to long range cute in global greenhouse emissions. They concluded their meetings today, calling climate change one of the great global challenges of our time. Good news, right? Well, not just yet.

Yesterday, leaders of the G8 (United States, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Britain and Russia) pledged to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases in half by 2050. But the Group of 5 emerging economies (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) refused to sign onto that goal. They are holding out until rich nations like the United States take more aggressive steps to cut pollution over the next decade.

It is good that the developing countries have embraced the principal of a global target that they will participate in, Philip Clapp of the Pew Environmental Group said. It would have been better if the United States and the other G-8 countries would have been willing to step up to the plate and make a strong commitment about what they would do over the next 10 years.”

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