Rich and poor nations were not able to overcome divisions and mistrust during last day of the Major Economies Forum (MEF) meeting and Group of Eight (G8) summit, and while some progress was made, leaders of wealthy nations failed to take responsibility for climate change, said the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Friday.

The conservation organisation said that the two meetings saw positive developments such as a common goal to limit global average temperature increases to 2ºC , but disappointed with the lack of ambitious reduction targets and serious financial commitments by industrialised countries.

"It’s all about money. Rich countries are telling poor nations: ‘oh poor you’. But they avoid committing to pay their fair share. This is not enough and it is not fair," said WWF Denmark CEO Kim Carstensen.

"Wealthy nations have to show true empathy, real leadership, solid financial commitments and not comforting statements," she added.

"The failure by MEF to agree on halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a sign of mistrust between developed and developing nations," Carstensen reiterated.

It was said that during the meeting of the major economies, bringing together states responsible for about 80% of the world’s emissions, some industrialised nations tried to blame emerging economies for insufficient progress.

"In order to achieve a compromise the blame game has to be abandoned and replaced by responsible and credible commitments of industrialised countries."

WWF welcomed MEF’s declarations on a 2ºC warming limit, and to double public funds for research in green technologies. It showed there was still some good will and therefore chance for agreement in Copenhagen in December.

"There are some signs of good will which if continued could result in an agreement. We are convinced that a deal in Copenhagen is still possible – it is utterly doable as long as the political will is there," Carstensen concluded.