When German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused to accept "lazy compromises" on climate change emissions at the G-8 summit earlier this month, the rest of the world watched as a line was drawn in the oil between German and United States interests.

In the end, Al Gore summed up the summit as "a disgrace disguised as an achievement." He went on to say, "The eight most powerful nations gathered and were unable to do anything except to say 'We had good conversations and we agreed that we will have more conversations, and we will even have conversations about the possibility of doing something in the future on a voluntary basis perhaps.'"

The leader who hosted the summit, Chancellor Merkel, put on a brave face and called the negotiations on climate change "great progress and excellent result."  Remember that she demanded aggressive carbon emission cuts and a target of 50-per-cent reduction by 2050.

Remember, too, that Ms. Merkel pleaded for a firm vote to stop a world temperature gain of more than two Celsius degrees.

As well, there was the desire to formulate a plan of action to stop rising greenhouse gas emissions after 2012 when a successor to the Kyoto Protocol needs to come into effect.  

All the G8 leaders could come up with was "...we will consider seriously...a halving of global emissions by 2050."

Mr. Harper chatted about the need for "real, mandatory, enforceable targets."  Lovely words, but there is nothing happening in Canada that translates that message into clear actions.

Mr. Bush came to the summit armed with another climate summit in 2008, ostensibly bringing such developing nations as China and India into the negotiations (Remember that Mr. Bush leaves office in 2009!)  For good reasons, most people regard this initiative as one more stalling tactic.

After all, recently, the Bush administration decided with its other hand to slash through U.S. Agency for International Development, aid in reducing tropical rainforest deforestation, and thus undermined an important program for community management of forests in Africa, Asia and South America! 

(Tropical rainforest deforestation contributes 20 per cent of global greenhouse gases-even more than the entire transportation sector!)

Sweden is not a member of the G-8 countries but it is worth looking at what one town has done to inspire the rest of the world to fight climate change (Perhaps a Canadian politician will do something here?)

The city of Vaxjo in southern Sweden is part of a growing number of "climate" municipalities that have slashed their greenhouse gas emissions to five tonnes or less per person each year.  (Canadians, with twenty plus tonnes are true gluttons. Take a look at www.onelesstonne.ca to make a difference in your GHG emissions).

Sweden's strong policies on climate change have made it possible for Vaxjo to attain a future free of fossil fuels while not giving up comfort or economic well-being.

Let's face it: the reasons why the G-8 leaders talk is because citizens are not telling them to stand up and act. Each of us can change that.