Obama Says Climate Deal Still Possible Despite Setback at G8 Meeting

President Obama says a deal to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions is still possible, despite the failure of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations to agree on a plan to halve CO2 emissions by 2050. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that “there was still time in which they could close the gap on that disagreement” before a key climate summit in Copenhagen in December. On Wednesday, China and India objected to setting a goal of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by mid-century, saying the industrialized Western nations first needed to agree to steeper interim emissions cuts and to generously fund efforts to help poorer nations develop alternative sources of energy. The G8 did embrace a goal of limiting future temperature increases to 3.6 degrees F, but U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the action was “not enough,” adding that making steep CO2 reductions was “politically and morally imperative and (an) historic responsibility… for the future of humanity.”