The annual G8 Summit has come round so quickly this year - especially with the food crisis, climate change and the imminent credit crunch recently hitting the headlines. This year the leaders of the 8 richest countries met in Japan's Northern island of Hokkaido. And for the first time, on the request of President George W Bush, the G8 leaders also held an enlarged Meeting of Major Economies with Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa - perhaps a way to share the responsibility?
Key pledges made were...
Steps against Zimbabwe and a joint G8 statement was read out condemning the way last month's national elections had proceeded. But why did the statement stop short of sanctions? Apparently Russia believe that sanctions are not an effective tool and promoted negotiations as way of resolving the crisis. Surely this is going to be difficult if intimidation and violence continue to be used against opposition supporters. Plus Mugabe and opposition leader Tsvangarai are not prepared to speak to each other.
A commitment to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The host, Japan hailed the summit a success based on this pledge, but what baseline has been set for this? And surely much more is needed much sooner - are there no medium-term objectives?
Moves to boost nuclear power to tackle climate change. However, Germany rightly pointed out the risks in the development of nuclear power. And why were further pledges not made to the development of alternative energy sources like wind and solar?
Increase aid to Africa and help meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These include halving global hunger and getting every child into primary school by 2015. But the leaders have been critised by pressure groups for not spelling out exactly how these commitments will be met.
They asked nations with sufficient food stocks to release some of them to help others cope with soaring food prices. But what caused the food crisis in the first place? The leaders failed to tackle this.
In a nutshell, I found this year's G8 Summit disappointing. The leaders did talk about the sticky global issues, but I felt that this was all 'hot air' as they did not really address the causes of these issues and how the pledges are going to be met. It will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next few months with leaders meeting again in September and December to discuss the Millenium Development Goals - I am sure that they are aware that the world will be watching them.
Pritha Bardhan
