The leaders of the world's industrialized and several developing nations concluded a summit in Japan on Wednesday, promising to bring about deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Leaders of G-8 nations also agreed to develop and deploy clean energy technologies through increased research and development.But behind the upbeat rhetoric of the G-8 [1] meeting, which took place in Japan, was a clear lack of hard targets and specific commitments that would actually guide any climate action plan, according to the New York Times [2].

The summit yielded several important developments. Participants endorsed the idea of cutting global greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2050. China and India, the largest developing nations, were recruited for the talks. They and other developing countries received a promise that rich countries would take the lead in curbing emission

But Time [3] points out that the G-8 refused to set short-term emissions-cut targets. The group didn't even specify which base year it would use as the starting point for cutting emissions in half — either 1990, the year used for the Kyoto Protocol [4], or the present day.