For one thing the US, so long vilified as the greatest polluter of the world and who had refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, has decided at long last to come on board, something that was inconceivable even few months ago. While the US has been consistently against any obligatory capping of emissions, that President Bush has signed a document which calls for considering seriously a halving of global emissions below the level of 1990 by 2050, is very significant indeed given the fact that the US accounts for 25 percent of current CO2 emissions. What is significant too is that the US, which has so far been outside the ambit of a global regime insofar as global warming is concerned, has now started talking of the consequences of inaction in tackling GHG effects.

At the same time one must welcome the compromise that the deal has been able to achieve. President Bush, who, ahead of the meeting had proposed the establishment of his own process of climate control negotiations, has conceded that any talks on the issue should be held under the aegis of the UN. This we are sure will lend a momentum to UN negotiations leading up to a new global deal by 2008 to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

It is time we started to look at the problem squarely in the face. The facts are very dismal indeed. Reportedly, GHG emissions have risen by 70 percent since 1970, and will rise by between 25 and 90 percent over the next 25 years if the developed and some of the rising economies of the developing countries continued in the same vein the use of fossil fuel, which will continue to be the world's dominant source of energy.

The G-8 agreement is an acknowledgement by the world's richest countries of their contribution to global warming as also their responsibility to play the leading role in reducing its impact. However, expressed commitments must be put into action, lest the agreement turns out to be worth no more than the paper it is written on, as some fear it might.