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GUESTS: Joseph Romm, Executive director and Founder of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, Author of Hell and High Water:Global Warming the Solution and the Politics and What We Should Do, Nick Simmons, member of the International G8 Way

The summit of the Group of 8, or G8, has kicked off in Germany this week, with reports of disappointment already being heard. German chancellor Angela Merkel set the issue of climate change as the main topic of discussion, with a proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the countries to 50% by the year 2050, and increasing energy efficiency by 50% by the year 2020. Predictably US President Bush strongly opposed the proposal with the result being that by the end of the meeting on Friday, ‘small steps’ are expected to be made on the climate change to pave the way for a post-Kyoto agreement. Foreign policy analyst Walden Bello says that even Merkel’s ambitious sounding proposal would simply be too little, too late, and that rich countries should be talking about an at least 80% cutback. The G8 includes Germany, the UK, the US, Russia, Japan, France, Italy and Canada. Meanwhile, German police have built an extensive infrastructure of security to protect the attending summit leaders. Tens of thousands of protesters have been converging upon the meeting, surging past a fence built to keep them back, and blocking traffic from the airport. Hundreds have been arrested and many have suffered serious injury as a result of police violence. There are also reports of a handful of police injuries.