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'G8 is no longer enough'
10/07/2008 07:32 - (SA)
Rusutsu - Leaders of the world's wealthy nations ended a mega-summit united in vowing to fight a food crisis and supporting a plan to slash by half the global emission of greenhouse gases by the middle of the century.
But the expanded meeting of the Group of Eight that ended on Wednesday also showcased a widening rift with developing nations and prompted some of the G8's own leaders to acknowledge that many of world's most pressing issues are simply too much for them to handle alone.
"We face global problems that need global solutions," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in his closing statement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was more direct: "The G8 is no longer enough to solve many of the problems."
Host Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's prime minister, said the confluence of potential global crises made the summit particularly important - and difficult.
"We had many heated discussions," he said. "This year's summit was the most important in recent years."
To bring in as many players as possible, the summit, held under heavy security at a secluded mountaintop resort on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, was actually a three-in-one affair.
Along with the wealthy nations, leaders of the Group of Five leading developing countries, who together represent 42% of the world's population, and seven African heads of state were invited for outreach sessions.
Failed to impress leaders of developing nations
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also came, along with the chiefs of the World Bank, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, International Energy Agency, African Union and European Commission.
Climate change was by far the biggest topic during the three-day meetings.
For the first time the G8 - whose members are the United States, Japan, Russia, Canada, Italy, Germany, France and Britain -committed as a group to the long-term goal of halving emissions by 2050 worldwide.
They failed, however, to impress the leaders of the major developing nations, who are calling for the G8 to make the most ambitious cuts because they are historically the world's biggest polluters and are economically the most capable of adapting to the changes required.
In the meeting of the G8 and the leaders of China, India, Brazil and 13 other countries held on the closing day, only three supported the declaration on climate change that the G8 had made the day before.
Even so, US President George W Bush, who was making his final G8 summit appearance, tried to portray the meeting as a glowing success.
Bush said the world's richest countries had moved to improve to the daily life of millions of people and cited new agreements on fighting disease, protecting the environment and promoting development.
Rifts within the G8
"We served both our interests as Americans, and we've served the interests of the world," he said.
But Chinese President Hu Jintao - refusing to endorse G8's climate change stance - insisted that his country's per capita emissions are still relatively low and said economic growth in the developing world should not be sacrificed.
Big rifts within the G8 were also apparent.
The group did not specify a baseline year for the emissions cuts, making it unclear exactly what they were committing to.
The leaders left the question open for ongoing negotiations under the auspices of the UN that face a deadline of December 2009, when 190 nations are to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark.
For its lack of specifics, the summit generally received low marks from environmental groups and from anti-poverty organisations, who believe more should have been done to assure spiralling prices do not create a food crisis and want the G8 to get much-needed aid to Africa.
"Never was more urgent action needed by the G8 than this week," said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of the advocacy group Oxfam. "The G8 failed to rise to the challenge of a world in crisis."
- AP
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