The G-8's tepid resolve

The world's leading economies, meeting in Japan as the Group of Eight, pledged to lose 20 pounds, exercise every day and eat a healthy, sensible diet.

They actually agreed to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2050, but the net effect has the familiar ring of an empty New Year's resolution.

As a practical matter, the distant date and absence of intermediate steps and benchmarks drains away any sense of urgency or credible substance.

The plan pledges money instead of leadership and talks in lawyerly ways about looping in emerging economies before broader global-warming initiatives are embraced.

For all of the feel-good quality of the proposal, no one is impressed or fooled, including the secretary-general of the United Nations and the head of the World Bank.

Host Japan and European countries have more ambitious national standards. The tepid response by the G-8 nations is lamented as a lost opportunity to build momentum toward a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which has never been embraced by the Bush administration and begins to expire in 2012.

The G-8 statement puts great stock in technology as a solution, and would invest $10 billion annually to help other countries to pursue and employ the fruits of research.

The missing ingredient is leadership by example that combines changes in old habits and expectations with new ways to think about global warming in the wealthiest countries. That's a glaring and transparent omission.