A G7 Promise to "Decarbonize" the Global Economy

This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the the G7 has promised to phase out fossil fuels and to end extreme poverty and hunger by the end of the century.  As reported by TheGuardian, leaders also agreed to target a limit of 2C increase in global temperatures over pre-industrial levels.  In a document titled "Think Ahead, Act Together," the leaders agreed to back the IPCC UN Climate Change Panel to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from 40%-70%, using 2010 as a base.  

While some consider this announcement as a promsing moment in what can often be a somber global political environmental history, others complain that these world leaders aren't doing enough, fast enough.  Politics is indeed about compromise, and it's impressive that Canada and Japan have now joined in a group effort to commmit to envirinmental action, but this may indeed be an insufficient timeline as the oceans begint to rise, we face water and food crises as a global population, and weather patterns have begun to change according to climate change models.  Still, leadership is a start and is better than no change. Perhaps this is indeed a positive sign as to what can be accomplished at the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in paris latee this year.