RUSUTSU, Japan - The world's major economies will make no mention of hard targets to lower greenhouse-gas emissions in a statement to be released in Japan this week on the sidelines of the G8 summit, according to a draft text obtained by The Canadian Press.

The draft of the statement to be issued following Wednesday's major economies meeting seeks to defer any agreement on specific emissions to next year's United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"We believe that it would be desirable for the parties to adopt in negotiations under the (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) a long-term global goal for reducing global emissions, taking into account the principle of equity," the draft statement says.

The major economies meeting is a forum set up by the United States to bring together the Group of Eight wealthy countries with the UN and South Africa, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea, India and Australia.

The four-page draft on energy security and climate change, dated June 23, 2008, is expected to form the basis of a joint statement to be released later this week.

The draft makes no mention of specific goals to reduce the emissions widely believed to be changing the world's climate. Nor does it mention last year's agreement to "consider seriously" halving global emissions by 2050.

NDP Leader Jack Layton says Prime Minister Stephen Harper "is betraying us on the world stage" by ignoring the recent passage in Parliament of a bill that commits to an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050.

The private member's bill, proposed by Layton, received support from all parties except Harper's minority Conservative government. It's now awaiting Senate approval before becoming law.

"And here he's out trying to go in the opposite direction talking to the G8," Layton told The Canadian Press in Ottawa. "He is not representing the majority of Canadians and he is betraying Parliament.

Layton said Harper is kowtowing to the interests of big oil, and the world cannot afford to wait until next year.

G8 host country Japan faces pressure to build upon last year's summit in Germany and high-level UN talks in Bali, Indonesia, last December.

A spokesman for the Japanese foreign ministry said late Sunday the host country hoped to step beyond what was accomplished last year on climate change.

But some, including Canadian Environment Minister John Baird, have already written off a major breakthrough coming out of this week's summit in the Japanese resort village of Toyako.

And the draft statement gave environmental groups little reason for optimism.

"If the major economies process does conclude with virtually nothing to show for it, as this draft text suggests, that puts even more pressure on the G8 to show real leadership on climate change in their own communique later this week," said Clare Demerse, a senior policy analyst at the Pembina Institute.

The draft statement appears to shift responsibility to the Copenhagen conference, which is hoped to yield a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions, which expires at the end of 2012.

The G8 leaders are deadlocked over how to deal with developing nations like China and India, two of the world's biggest polluters.

Canada, the United States and Russia oppose any climate change pact that does not include the big emitters. Such an agreement, they argue, would have negligible impact on the world's overall emission levels.

But the G8's European contingent - France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany - say they must lead the way before the developing states follow them in making deep emissions cuts.

The rift over climate change widened as the head of the European Commission urged leaders of the world's wealthy countries to act first in setting targets for reducing greenhouse gases.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the G8 countries must reach agreement among themselves on climate change measures and avoid taking the approach that "I will do nothing unless you do it first," which he called a "vicious circle."

"If we agree, then we are in a much better position to discuss with our Chinese and Indian partners and others," Barroso said.

The developing countries have argued that they won't set any goals for themselves until the developed countries agree to bold carbon reductions.

The draft statement acknowledges that developed and developing states have different responsibilities, but share the onus to fight climate change.

It says the developed countries will implement, as soon as possible, "economy-wide mid-term goals and take corresponding actions in order to achieve absolute emission reductions."

Meanwhile, the developing states "will pursue, in the context of sustainable development, nationally appropriate mitigation actions, supported by technology, financing and capacity-building, with a view to achieving a deviation from business as usual emissions."

The document also encourages countries to use a mix of renewable and green technology, and nuclear power to fulfil their energy needs.

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