Leaders from 21 member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum agreed Saturday that global warming must be stopped and greenhouse gas emissions have to be reduce in order to reach this goal.

But the leaders failed to reach a consensus regarding sturdy targets for each economy, despite acknowledging that all nations have to reduce emissions regardless of their rate of development.

This year’s summit is held in Sydney, Australia’s most populous city. During the discussions, leaders agreed on “specific APEC goals on energy intensity” and said measures should be taken to halt deforestation in order to properly tackle climate change. 
Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard said these preliminary agreements represent the basis for an international pact.

“It's a very important milestone in the march towards a sensible international agreement on climate change which recognizes the need to make progress but also recognizes that different economies bring different perspectives to addressing the challenge of climate change,” Howard said.

The Australian premier said this week’s APEC meeting will build the framework for future protocols and discussions “will be continued at the meeting being convened by President Bush in Washington at the end of this month of major economies to deal with climate change issues and also the very important United Nations to take place in Bali in December which will be hosted by Indonesia.”

Howard and US President George W Bush are trying to convince other member economies from the Pacific Rim to agree on “long-term aspirational global emissions-reduction goals.” Their efforts struck the resistance of China and other blooming economies who said these targets have to be settled during future agreements mediated by the United Nations.

Australia and the US are not signatory members of the Kyoto Protocol elaborated two decades ago in Tokyo. Both countries said targets imposed by the treaty would represent a hurdle for their economies and stressed that other nations have to address climate change.

According to recent studies, the US produces the biggest amount of polluting agents, while Australia leads the emissions rankings on a per capita basis due to its reliance on coal for power generation.

Bush and Howard have been heavily criticized by environmental organizations for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. A Greenpeace member said the two leaders are trying to dodge firm targets through these so-called “aspirational goals .”

“If John Howard and George Bush are sincere in addressing climate change, they should ratify Kyoto Protocol and embrace real solutions such as renewable energy and energy efficiency and set legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Climate and Energy campaigner Abigail Jabines said.

“To John Howard and George Bush - don't run away from Kyoto Protocol, just do it.”

Sydney has been turned into a veritable fortress, with steel fences and thousands of security forces patrolling the streets. Several protest actions were stopped, while the Saturday march that was expected to comprise more than 15,000 persons turned into a demonstration attended by approximately 4,000 anti-war activists.