Leaders of G8 nations may walk out of the summit having agreed to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 and to hold human-induced temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius, the BBC reported July 6. 

News of the G8 plans came as ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair urged rich nations to reach short-term climate targets by ramping up existing clean technologies. Blair said that acting on climate change was “urgent” and that progress was being made in engaging governments of some of the world’s largest economies.

There was “a general acceptance on the part of most sensible people that we have to deal with it,” he said.

“We have an American administration committed to tackling climate change. We have a Chinese administration that’s no longer saying you guys have created the problem - you solve it, but has immersed itself in this challenge.”

What is needed now is “practical policy making,” Blair added.