Russia has refused to back a target of an 80 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 proposed by the Group of Eight (G8) countries, a Kremlin aide said on Wednesday after the first day of the G8 summit in Italy. At a news conference earlier in the day, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the world’s richest nations should cut their emissions by 80 per cent by the middle of the century.

