With Lake Toya in the background, the leaders of the Group of Eight nations and European Union - (from L to R) Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S. President George W. Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso - pose for a group photo on the second day of a three-day summit meeting at the Windsor Hotel Toya in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan, on July 8, 2008.

The G8 countries are calling on all major economies to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda says the G8 countries will set individual targets.

Yasuo Fukuda said, "After today's G8 summit we agreed to set the aim for a reduction of the entire global emissions of gasses to 50 percent by 2050 as a target to be taken up by the entire world."

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, says participants should also agree to set up mid-term targets, similar to those the EU wants to reach by 2020.

The G8 countries represent only 13 and a half percent of the global population but are responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

The leaders say they'll start with efforts to stop the growth of emissions as soon as possible.

But they've failed to set binding mid-term targets for emission reductions.

Environmentalists are criticizing the statement for failing to go beyond last year's statement. They say the 50 percent reduction target isn't enough.

(CCTV July 10, 2008)