As the Group of Eight (G8) countries prepare for the G8 summit in Italy next week, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has urged leaders to put meaningful climate change action at the top of the agenda, and issued the top industrialised nations with their ‘climate change scorecards'.

Issues on the agenda for the G8 summit included the global economic crisis, Iran, North Korea, piracy, and aid to the developing world. However, it was also hoped that there would be some movement from industrialised countries towards controlling their carbon-dioxide emissions.

"While there might be a bail-out possibility for the financial system, no amounts of money will save the planet once climate change crosses the danger threshold. It is therefore crucial to limit the rise of the global temperature to below 2ºC compared to pre-industrial levels," emphasised WWF director general James Leape.

These G8 climate change scorecards, highlighting shortfalls in performance, and areas of improvement with regard to global warming, showed that while some effort has been made, "action remained inefficient to set the world on a low-carbon economy course".

Overall, WWF said that the G8 failed to reach climate goals - again.

"The latest G8 climate scorecards report shows that Germany, followed by the UK and France, is performing better than the rest of the rich nations' group. Italy and Japan are in a lower medium ranked group. Canada, the US and Russia are lagging behind, despite the US moving up one rank," the organisation said.

The report stated that Germany, the UK and France have already achieved their Kyoto targets - but their long-term climate performance was not enough to limit the global temperature rise below 2ºC. It was also noted that France's emissions were lower owing to the country's reliance on nuclear power - which was not an energy solution supported by WWF.

The US climbed from last-ranked, to seventh place, thanks to positive signals given by the Obama administration to date, on tackling climate change.

Canada and Russia, which were at the bottom of the rank, either did not have political plans to change this development, or were not implementing them. WWF stated that Canada had continued to increase emissions, and showed no intention of lowering emissions or adhering to Kyoto commitments.

The report highlighted that the economic crisis has not yet watered down the ambition levels of countries. There was a general recognition that well-designed and properly spent public money could benefit economic development and employment, as well as reducing greenhouse gasses (GHGs).

WWF South Africa climate change programme manager Richard Worthington said that the G8 summit was an opportunity to set the course for the Copenhagen conference to succeed. In doing this they will realise the triple advantage of action now against climate change."

He added that immediate action would keep the option open for the planet to avoid catastrophic climate change; it would set the world on a sustainable energy path, which in the short run could help stabilise the economy, and in future provide ample energy for the whole planet; and it could help develop a low carbon economy that helps avoiding millions of climate refugees and massive cost for later adaptation to climate impacts.

The G8 climate scorecards 2009 measure countries' performance and trends in areas such as development of GHG emissions since 1990, the distance to their Kyoto-targets, their share of renewable energies and the efficiency of their climate policies.

The scorecards followed a report carried out by Ecofys for WWF and Allianz SE. The evaluation was based on their progress and improvement made since 1990, looking at the current status of emissions and the intended policies for the future.

A decisive United Nations summit in Copenhagen would see the final round of negotiations for a new climate treaty, following the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which comes to an end in 2012.

G5 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SCORECARDS

The top five developing countries (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) also came under climate change scrutiny, and were rated - although not in the same way as the G8.

The report stated that all of the five nations were undertaking action to slow emissions growth into the future, with South Africa showing the most comprehensive plans in this regard.

South Africa has said it acknowledged the need to reduce emissions by 30% by 2050, and Mexico has announced a 50% cut in emissions by 2050.

The support for renewable energy technologies in the Group of Five countries was viewed as significant.

It was also noted that China and India had substantial energy efficiency targets. China has negotiated energy reduction targets for the 1 000 most energy intensive enterprises, which were now being implemented. China was also said to be about ten years ahead of its renewable energy uptake targets.