G8 climate plans ‘watered down’

This is all very disappointing.

A leaked copy of a document on climate change being drafted for the G8 summit suggests plans have been watered down.

A version of the communiqué leaked in May treated climate change as a fact and pledged money to energy projects.

In the new version the words “our world is warming” appear in square brackets, meaning at least one country disagrees, and all financial pledges have gone.

And, of course, we can all guess who that “one country” is.

Labour’s ex-environment minister Michael Meacher suggested the US government would not sign up to a document that mentioned global warming.

“Presumably it was taken out because of the Americans,” he said.

The new text was “very disappointing”, he added, saying it was “extraordinary” that doubt was being cast on the notion the world is getting hotter.

Can’t we just ignore the US until they get a sensible government?