UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is criticizing Group of Eight nations for not going far enough in setting targets to fight climate change, a move that creates a bad example for developing nations.

On Wednesday, the leaders reached an agreement recognizing that average global temperatures should be kept from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius from preindustrial times.

However, the leaders made no short-term commitments to reach that goal. They also made no firm commitments to help poor countries deal with climate change.

"I sincerely hope and I urge, and I'm going to urge, that the leaders of G8 are responsible to lead this campaign," Ban said. "They should be able to provide financial support, technological support" so that developing countries can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

The G8 leaders also agreed that the world's major economies would take "robust" midterm reductions on their way to reducing 80 per cent of heat-trapping carbon emissions by 2050.

Still, despite recommendations from a UN panel, the leaders made no firm targets.

The UN panel had said global emissions must be reduced between 25 per cent and 40 per cent by 2020 to keep average global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees above preindustrial levels 150 years ago.

Ban said the G8 policies are "not sufficient enough."

"This is the science. We must work according to the science. This is politically and morally imperative and a historic responsibility for the leaders for the future of humanity, even for the future of planet Earth," he said.

John Drexhage, with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said China and India have a "wait-and-see" attitude towards the G8.

"They're saying 'We've yet to be shown that in fact you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and still make strong economic progress,'" Drexhage told CTV News Channel.

He said if the G8 can prove it works then China and India come on board quicker.

Trade talks

G8 leaders opened their exclusive club Thursday to five developing economies -- Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Mexico.

In addition to climate change and development aid, global economic growth and international trade were expected to be discussed.

"We reaffirm our commitment to maintain and promote open markets and reject all protectionist measures in trade and investment," according to a draft of the joint statement signed by 17 nations, including the Group of Eight industrialized countries and five key emerging market economies.

The five developing countries, along with special invitee Egypt, say developing countries were hurt by protectionist moves that have occurred during the current economic crisis.

They called for stronger multilateral trading, which they said would play a role in promoting development and reducing poverty.

"We are concerned with the present state of the world economy, which submits the developing countries to an inordinate burden resulting from a crisis they did not initiate," the G5 said in a statement Wednesday.

The final document is to be released later in the day.

With files from The Associated Press