G8 buries climate pledges -- in time capsule
TOYAKO, Japan (AFP) — Group of Eight leaders meeting here wrangled over the timeframe to fight global warming, but they have a set deadline when their pledges will be reviewed -- in 100 years.
Their summit documents, along with current newspapers, will be buried in a time capsule at the luxury hotel where they met for three days in the mountain resort of Toyako in northern Japan.
The Windsor Hotel Toya will dig up and open the time capsule on July 7, 2108.
"We hope to confirm that the summit will have been remembered for 100 years as a key conference on climate change and that by then global warming will be halted as promised by the leaders," a hotel spokesman said.
The time capsule will be put in a new park along with a monument with the engraved autographs of the G8 leaders and a sculpture representing a chunk of ice that is melting due to global warming.
The leaders of the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- agreed that the world should at least halve emissions blamed for climate change by 2050.
But the G8 did not set any firm targets for the nearer term as the leaders pressed for developing countries to make their own commitments to cut carbon emissions.
Construction of the 150 million (1.4 million dollar) park began in May. It will be open to visitors in early August.
