At the G8 summit, the eight most powerful (and most polluting) countries in the world have set a target of reducing global emissions by 50% by 2050, says Atticus. Do they mean it?

The wording of their joint statement at the Japanese summit is, "We seek to share with all parties to the UNFCCC the vision of, and together with them to consider and adopt in the UNFCCC negotiations, the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050." It may sound a bit wordy and woolly, but for the G8 that's a punchy statement.

The US retreated from a similar statement soon after last year's summit, so we'll have to wait and see how this one fares. We also don't know yet what this 50% emissions cut is to be measured against. The political systems of the majority of the G8 countries are all pretty short-termist in outlook in general too, so perhaps the lengthy 42-year deadline of this goal is a cause for concern as well – it shifts the burden onto future administrations who may choose to drop it.

Conversely, perhaps this longer-term vision is what's needed in such short-termist times?