Twelve years too late, the leaders of the G8 agreed today to prevent global temperatures rising by more than 2C. An ‘acceptable’  temperature rise that will, according to the latest research, destroy half the rainforest. As some of the largest carbon sinks on Earth, after the oceans, the disappearance of the rainforests will make efforts to contain climate change more difficult than ever. The gloomiest of reports predict that the loss of carbon sinks due to rising temperatures will create a runaway greenhouse effect.

Even without a 2C rise in temperatures, over 13,000 sq km of sea ice in the Antarctic Peninsula have been lost over the last 50 years, leading to rising sea levels that are already adversely affecting communities in low lying parts of the world. And whilst disappearing ice means too much water in Bangladesh, in Bolivia, where millions of people source their drinking water from Andean glaciers, it means not enough. This year saw the disappearance of the Chacaltaya glacier. The last piece of Bolivia’s famous ski resort sits in the freezer of hydrologist Edson Ramirez. For Ramirez, Chacaltaya’s disappearance is a warning of worse things to come as the retreat of the glaciers that supply La Paz and the burgeoning population of El Alto means that from this year onwards “demand for water will be progressively greater than supply.”

The G8′s agreement is, of course, a step forward. But considering the world has spent eight years limping behind George W. Bush, a step forward is not very far. The Obama administration is to be commended for finally bringing America out of the 20th Century so that progress on climate change can be made on a global level. And, if kept, the agreement by G8 nations to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 is indeed an historic one. But it is not history we should be looking to. It’s the future. And I can’t help thinking, this is much too little, much too late.

Join the call for a strong climate change treaty…