I agree with you. The G8 summit is all words and very little action. The members itself, is not a complete reflection of the world economics. It is one of the “developed countries” several ways of continuously trying to remain “elite”. I hear that there will be discussions about imposing sanctions on Mugabe’s government. How silly and a waste of time and resources. These G8 members are better at imposing sanctions and going to war, than actually resolving world issues! I say, strap the whole thing and let’s have a wider committee that represents all corners of the world.

I have to agree with you on this issue. I don’t really know if the G8 meeting is just another get together session for the world leaders to strengthen their bilateral ties with each other or whether they are serious about identifying the problems and finding the solution to it because clearly, we have seen not much success in the G8 meeting in the past. There have always been a high level of optimism that something good will come out of the meeting but the results are always disappointing.

If you want to discuss about issues like the oil crisis, then certainly you should invite countries like Saudi Arabia or other OPEC nation to join the discussion as well. Yes, the G8 members produce 29 percent of the world’s oil but if you want to find some kind of a solution, you have to talk with other major oil producers in other region. And if you want to discuss about the environment, surely countries like India and China should be part of it. I know that they will be involve in the meetings in someway or another, but I think its time that they are included in the G8 group as well. G8 was not created to be an exclusive club just for the rich countries. I think they should stop thinking in that way and start to open its doors for other countries, which have a significant role to play in the world affairs to be part of them so that more things could be discuss in more details.

I agree with you that the outcome might not be any different, but certainly future meetings will have much more impact when you have all the major powers participating in it because clearly, you wont be able to achieve much in issues like the climate change if you don’t include countries like China and India in it. The G8 members might come to an agreement for a particular issue but if other countries who are not members of the group disagree with the decision, then everything will be meaningless.

It is about time that the G8 open its door for expansion because if they continue to go with the way there are right now, they are in danger of becoming isolated and irrelevant in the eyes of the world. It is also time for them to start taking action instead of talking because if they couldnt take any action by the end, despite whatever agreement that has been said during the meetings, each country will go back on its own way and forget about what they said they are going to do during the meeting and it will then be another event that had offer much hope for the people but will deem to be another failure in the public view even before it had even begin.

I think G8 should be expanded. Preferences should be given to other BRIC economies [Brazil Russia India China] because they are the next super power.
Finally, a simple message for G8:
Stop talking, Start Doing!

I’m not sure whether who is in or who is out of the members club should be based on current trends; I prefer to believe that a member is so because of tried and trusted infrastructure and political stabillity. Including the ‘flavours of the month’ would take away the seriousness of the whole affair. China and India’s success is based on cheap manpower - that won’t last. It’s inevitable that the workers of these two economies will want a greater share of the success story, that in turn will increase cost of production and, ipso facto, decrease competitiveness. I’m judging my conclusions on the textbook behaviour of human nature; ‘if he get’s, why shouldn’t I?’. I do agree that, prima facie, the G8 summits don’t seem to get a lot done but I would have less faith in an entity that hurried through legislations just to satisfy the current cravings of the voter. We are talking about decisions on a global scale, not whether the local council agrees to fund a local swimming pool. It’s just too easy to criticise the G8, or any other entity of the same scale, just because it appears that nothing is being done - I’m sure they would dissagree with that accusation and present many facts of items that are being dealt with, and indeed, that have been dealt with. Unfortunately, the press and the media find it more profitable to magnify the negative points and we just lap it up.
Conclusion; a little more faith and patience.

The trouble is, as the next twelve months unfold events will show the G8 “leaders” up as clueless as to the underlying causes. With the “leaders” looking so fragile in the face of the issues they profess to progress, who will be the real leaders?

I understand why you would want China, and even Saudi Arabia to be included. However, both are powerless in the context of what they can achieve. China is looking a serious bubble collapse in the face (due to the very issues being discussed at the G8), while the Saudis just tell lies.

I believe the issues are global, and neither the G8, nor China, nor OPEC can be trusted to lead. If ever we needed a strong United Nations to tell the G8 to get real or get lost, now is the time. Not that I hold out much hope there.

The G8 summit will be a waste of print, and of the energy used up to fly them all to Japan.

this is just another meeting for struggle and scramble of power, few indivinduls want to control the whole world in the name of environment and economy corcerns……..let it be know that their is a superior mighty God creature of heaven n earth who is in control of evreything, in the first place he is the creature of earth, ofcoarse we should not be ignorant or irresponsible about taking care of environment, its an assignment from God, in short am saying dont mind so much about this passing world but were you will spend your eternity, we are all in a journey, stop for a while and ask yourself where you will spend your eternity,

In the comments I heard on air about why is Canada in the G8, wasn’t Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada intrsumental in starting the G8 (G7 at that time) back in the late 60’s or early 70’s?

Expanding the G8 is a fine idea. Certainly, Brazil and India would be good candidates for inclusion, but so would Mexico and perhaps South Africa and maybe even Indonesia. However, China should not be granted such an honor for the time being, it’s economic weight and growth notwithstanding.
The concept from the beginning was for the G7/G8 to serve as a forum for the world’s major industrialized DEMOCRACIES. It might be difficult for the financial editor and a business blog to give much weight to a political issue like democracy. Nevertheless, the primary purpose of the G8 is to come to political agreement on global issues.
Obviously, many of those issues have economic underpinnings. As such the G8 members should reach out to and engage China (and other major emerging markets), pressing Beijing to act as a responsible global stakeholder. However, a line has to be drawn on membership. The symbolic victory for the Communist dictators would be enormous and render absolutely pointless any further criticism or pressure the Western democracies might attempt to place on China to improve its human rights record and eventually transition to joining the democratic world.
Finally, the G8 is a diplomatic summit, not a business meeting. People in business expect their meetings to yield concrete results that have an immediate impact on the bottom line. Diplomacy doesn’t work that way. It never has and never will. Nevertheless, it is critically important to keep our leaders talking. By discussing the world’s most pressing problems they move ever so slowly toward a consensus that they can all sell to their constituencies back home and some times this process can produce a breakthrough — a leap – that results from an unusual act of collective political courage. But most progress will be painstakingly slow, because the problems are enormous in scope and dauntingly, frighteningly complex. It’s easy to call for more political courage, but there isn’t much point if its really an act of political suicide at the polls back home.

I think that these meetings are absolutely useless and are just a way to put a facade on the empty words that are spoken between these members. Unfortunately these meetings are running along side the UN as being a showcase for a useless, corrupt organization that is undermined by particular countries own agendas. Their is no real solidarity and absolutely no real substance. Like you say it takes strong leadership willing to take bold and substantive measures in order to make any relevance to this. Unfortunately no one is willing to step up to the plate.

And so it goes…

Why is Canada in the G8?

Lets see…
According to Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Canada had 179 billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 2008, second only to Saudi Arabia, and it is consistently the top supplier of U.S. oil imports.

Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ) reports that Canada had 57.9 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves in January 2008. The country produced 6.5 Tcf of natural gas in 2006, while consuming 3.3 Tcf. The country is the second largest producer of natural gas in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States.

Canada is the world’s leading uranium producer, accounting for a third of global production and 15% of global reserves.

Canada’s Soverignty regarding the Northwest Passage and the thinning of ice due to global warming. The potential benefits of a clear Northwest Passage are significant. Ship routes from Europe to Japan, China and other eastern destinations would be 4000 kilometers (2500 miles) shorter. Oil produced in Alaska could move quickly by ship to eastern North American and European markets. The vast mineral resources of the Canadian North will be much easier and economical to develop. This opportunity for expedient shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific is one of just a very small number of benefits that global warming might produce.

Canada is one of the most fortunate nations when it comes to available freshwater: Canada has only 0.5% of the world’s population, but its landmass contains approximately 9% of the world’s renewable water supply

..just a few reasons.. I could go on!

please include South Africa on your list.

Agree with Darwin whole-heartedly. We, the public, seem to give more attention to the negatives of the G8 summits (either the reasons given above or the protests that always come with these summits) than the positives. World leaders from various cultures with different interests…the fact that they are sitting down together is better than nothing. How many of us in our work have had to work long distances with someone and then when you finally meet, future correspondences just seem to go much better. Honestly, if it weren’t for all the protesters that cost tax payers so much money, the G8 summit is no different from all those other meetings that companies around the world have which aim to do a lot, but end up doing very little when the participants are back on their planes home. Are we any different? As for the other issues about China, Saudi Arabia, etc., there are other groups for it (OPEC, APEC, etc.)…many of the countries in the G8 are part of other groups and what is not resolved in the G8 will be brought up later. The G8 summit might mean nothing, but is it their fault or is it that of the protesters and the media which give it more attention than it deserves?

I agree with you…

Because I’m not sure why we have another world talking shop…we have the United Nations for that…and then there are regional groups like EU, African Union etc

Which country is the worlds best present example of global financial irresponsibility, energy irresponsibility, and short term thinking?

Why that would be as Pogo said “We have met the enemy and they is us.”

This is the kind of idea that makes no sense. Our country is single-handedly bringing world financial markets down with unnecessary wars, spending the worlds money, sabotaging what was the world’s most reliable courency, and otherwise behaving as a barbarian bull in the world china closet.

And this idiot would blame China, Russia, and other countries, for what is essentially a failure of leadership by our own country.

The US created the G8 with help from the British. The US should be providing the leadership necessary for success — and hasn’t.

The people who created the G8 have been betrayed by several generations of selfish, lousy, perverse, and sanctimoneous leadership that has thumbed its nose at freinds, picked convenient enemies, and sabotaged all efforts to fight climate change, to provide alternate energy sources so that we wouldn’t have energy and oil shocks, and to draw the teeth from terrorist networks by responsible police and nation building.

So if anyone needs to be kicked out of the G8 it is the Reaganomics/ Bushite/ Oilman driven Business-politics that have dominated the G8 for the past 30 years since Carter was driven from office for speaking truth and prophesy.

Save indonesian forest

G8 is waste time ! every member will there but nothing will change.

G8 is one organization, but with very different politicians,
in one hand there ’s America and in the other hand there’s Russia
there will be never a normal agreement between the countries in G8
THINK ABOUT IT !

Hi Job,

I have no idea where I am going to spend “my eternity”, but I do hope it is not where George WMD Bush and Berlusconi spend theirs, and if it’s a place where they have a spell-checking firewall, I won’t see you there either. I think I’ll settle for that.

The G-8 should talk alot about Zimbabwe’s issue. I think Prez Mugabe should be punish for his violence act.

I agree completely. Being unavoidably cynical, I would have to say the current capitalist system allows these issues to be created. The very rich, CEOs of multi nationals can avoid taxes etc. by moving money from country to country, making unbelievable profits from the consequences of the Iraq war, oil, arms etc, more profits from providing excessive credit to the majority, then selling mortgages to people who cannot afford them, then cutting up debt and selling it amongst themselves, all this causing stocks to fall and housing values to plummet. Then the coup de gras, because they are the only ones liquid, they have the resources to buy so much at rock bottom prices so that when markets eventually recover, they have made a nice tidy packet equal or greater than that was lost by all us suckers.

Isn’t the UN a better place to hold important meetings to discuss the matters which the G8 and other top-level groups need to talk about?

The disadvantages of globalization are clearly visible and quantifiable now, I would say. The cost of transport (oil) is making Ricardo’s theory of comparative costs look very shaky indeed now.
Should fully developed economies be making major efforts to maximize self-sufficiency in food and energy? And should developing countries prioritize self-sufficiency before thinking of proceeding to more complex levels of economic development?

Switzerland is definitely moving back towards encouraging more food production for home consumption. The retail sector is dominated by a very benign and socially responsible duopoly, both organizations are vertically organized, manufacturing own brands for example. These duopolists have introduced a new range of fruit and vegetables “Terra Suisse”, grown in Switzerland.

In Germany the debate on alternative, environmentally friendly energy is over - now the German state is getting into alternative energy big-time. Today it was on ZDF TV that €30 Milliarden (billion) is being spent on more wind parks offshore in North Germany.
Nordex and Repower will get major contracts. Solar energy also is a big story in Germany (90% p.a. growth y/on/year. Same is happening in Switzerland.

And as far as finance is concerned, both the a.m. countries are not wasting time waiting for any consensus on regulation in the financial sector (rating agencies, leverage, disclosure etc) but are introducing their own regulations. The EBK (Eidgenössische Bankenkommission) which regulates the banking sector in Switzerland, is taking on more staff to be able to exert more direct control on banks operating in Switzerland.

Bluntly, if one had a choice of watching a NBA game or the G8 conference….I’d pick the NBA game.

These guys show up at some high style environment….dress for each meeting or meal like some London play….toss out some prepared speech that their best speech writers write over several weeks….and act for the cameras primarily. If you evaluate all of the meetings they’ve ever had…..none have been worth remembering….other than the radical anti-establishment guys who show up.

At the least G-8 can take a closer look on Dr. Manmohan Singh’s vision of climate change,energy and sustainable growth as unified model fashioned around optimum utilisation of resources on a global platform.Even if no concrete measures are spelt out to curb the surge in commodity prices,the G-8 leaders will be inspired to adopt the proposals of the Indian Prime Minister to find answers to the problems for which they are meeting.

Of course they should be included, what is that G-8 a club of ancient/modern colonisers? and ALSO another thing that should be changing is eliminating for once the VETO rights in the UN Security Council. decisions should be taken by majorities.

Those who claim Democracy written with a capital D, should begin to give democratic rights to all the people of this planet.

I would like CNN to open a poll on that subject, and see the results. Thanks.

There is a lot of racism at play with worl elite that is predominantly European old money. But reality will eventualy show its teeth, when China will surpass US.

Sure G-8 meetings have purpose. One of the most relavant topics discussed at this G-8 summit was international child abduction. Japan has been aducting children from most, if not all, of the G-8 nations. Japan has NOT returned one child depite legal rulings from other countries. Japan is a haven for child abductors. Why can’t CNN or any other news agency report on this issue? Someone needs to start reporting on matters that effect the lives of our future children. When is CNN going to step up to the plate and cover this important issue? It was talked about but I can’t find one report on this topic. Can you??

BUGLIOSI SAYS BUSH IS A MURDERER: Vincent Bugliosi asserts that Bush is guilty of the murder of over 4000 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi’s. I wonder how G-8 members feel about meeting with a mass murderer?

July 8th, 2008 801 GMT
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It’s interesting to know that some of us still don’t understand the intensity of the global problems we face.

Excluding major countries that have these problems continually exposes the whole world to some kind of inevitable crises most of which the world faces today.The so called G8 countries should hurry and wake up to the reality that there’s nothing like superpower countries anymore.

It’s obvious that every country needs each other,where the so called developed world’s resources are continuosly beign depleted and there’s an urgent need of resources certainly from the countries considered “Not Developed”.I can’t just understand why the G8 can’t swallow their pride and let other countries live, buy making fair trade deals instead of trying to invent new ways to exploit the so called “Developing countries”.

The exploitation Age is over,and everyone should realize that,inother to survive,simple Fair trade deals have to be made,otherwise the G8 will be fooling themselves.Eventually,even face more problems on food and Fuel.

Everyone knows that Africa,Asia and South America are the Major Fuel and Food suppliers of the West and Europe.
So why all the Bla!Bla!Bla’sss…..

G8 has just on option to recognize these continents and give them what they want.It’s Business, simple.
They can’t simply have it all forever,guess they didn’t think they would.

And who is talking about China’s emission.
That’s nothing compared to the DAMAGE THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE CREATED WHILE THEY WERE DOING THERE OWN DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATION.

I suppose ChinA is waiting when more Developed countries ride bicycles to work,then, They(CHINA) Might consider reducing it’s negative environmental effects.China Rode Bicycles for decades and They were called developing.They’re tired of beign Laughed at.

Well,I GUESS THE G8 SHOULD”Practise what they preach!” Except from trying to invent means of how to exploit other people unnecessarily and then Turning round and calling Them “POOR”.

I guess most countries have had enough of being reffered to as “DEVELOPING COUNTRIES”,While the fact is that they have always played an important role in the development of the so called G8 countries without beign Appreciated or even Recognized.

It’s time “WE” All work together.

There’s No Developed and Developing Country in our world Today.
We have a global crises and that is what everyone needs to realize.

AFRICA ,ASIA ,AND SOUTH AMERICA HAVE MOST OF WHAT IT TAKES TO HELP REDUCE THESE PROBLEMS AS WELL AS THESE SO CALLED “DEVELOPED COUNTRIES=SHOULD PAY FOR THEIR CONSUMPTION”AND NOT GET IT FOR ALMOST FREE,BY USING SANCTIONS.

G8 SHOULD HAVE AN OPEN TRADE DEALS AND LET OTHERS LIVE.
Then we see there’s no DEVELOPING COUNTRY.
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I agree with you!! G-8 meeting is a big show, it’s to make it look like they are dealing with the problems, and their solutions is always one of two; one, it’s somthing they already know will not happend and then they can say ”ohh we tried” or two, emty promises!! I don’t think the that the G-8 needs to promise to spend more money on africa I think they need to actually keep the already made promises and use the money efficient.

If the G-8 is going to actual have an impact then brazil, india and China need to be in it to. A problem doesn’t disappear because you choose to ignore it, and that it exactly what they are doing. Ignoring everything china is doing; Taiwan, Tibet, CO2, etc.

What do guys thing?

I try to add a little more optimistic spin to the logic of G8 summits: In recent years, the G8 summit always came up with topics of world social relevance and managed to switch the main issue from one G8 summit to the next. Last year’s G8 summit in Heiligendamm/Germany had environment, this year its is crude oil, renewable energy and the food crisis - will they manage to switch to a new topic next year, again? But the media and ordinary citizens around the globe prove their good memory, increasingly resist to forget. The G8 - as a global forum - will be held accountable for too little action, ignoring interdependencies between interrelated problems or not keeping their promises sooner or later, and they certainly kwow it. And many more problems of the same type will pop up and add to to the issues that the G8 have to deal with, and attempts at distracting will fail. In addition to the above comments about the nation states that should be sitting at the G8 table, I think a major obstacle for getting to good results a principal agent problem. The people and public of nation states represented at the G8 table are the principles, the heads of government are the agents, and they have their own interests, e.g. the next election. It will be hard to hold them accountable personally for what they do.

The G8 is a northern hemisphere “old boys club”.
However most of the issues being discussed there also affect/effect those of us that live in the south
I live in South Africa, and strongly feel that the inclusion of the RSA would be a bad idea - given our serious social and crime problems - Australia would be a better idea
We are a 3rd World country with a fairly sophisticated 1st World component but not worthy of membership at this stage
Oz would get my vote

I agree with Todd, waste of time and more delays. Can somebody compute the amount of carbon emissions that were produced to run this wasteless summit? The countries should all be charged some sort of entry fee which should then be donated to an environmental cause!

The G8 summit is nothing more than the rich countries showing how rich and powerful they are, and using so called talk about issues like global warming, the food crisis, and humanity violations as a front. The G8 never accomplishes anything and never will. Poor nations like in the continent of Africa are not important to them because of no capital interest. Global warming is not important because the nations’ presidents love controling the resources. Humanity violations are not important because the people are not the “right people” to them.

Even if the G8 sumit produced an agreement would there be any real impact to the climate? Reality is the planet has been getting warmer since the last ice age. If the planet begins to cool then we will have real problems.

It’s not a complete waste of time. It’s huge progress to have Bush even admitting publicly anything about the climate issues - it might hep finally sway those in the US who are still denying the science. But most summit meetings are time-wasters.

You’ve been mentioning something important - the fact that farmers are paid money not to plant crops. I’d love to see CNN go in further to this. A special, explaining *why* this is done and what the effect is. You could even have a number of people discuss it on Larry King Live! For those farming subsidies will stay in place until there’s more media attention.

At least the expensive food is getting those Afghanis to plant food instead of opium.

Victoria, I can understand your emotions on this subject (paying not to grow), it is indeed a controversial sounding headline but, as any impartial ecconomist would grant, it was at it’s inception a critical policy, and, possibly still is. The famines endured over the last few centuries, (wealthiest nations not excluded) instigated seroius thought on how to secure a reliable and constant food supply. Now, as we all know that, generally speaking, mankind is not in the habit of putting it’s neck on the block unless a risk premium is attached to the deal, and so, farmers, existing and new, were financially coaxed to go all out and produce untill it came out of their ears; western governments of the last forty or fifty years could not and would not allow famine in their own countries to become a topic at issue. There came a point when the farming machine, thanks to, inter alia, technological advances, became over efficient and hence the butter mountains and the milk lakes. Now what happens? The price a market will pay for one hand full of grain is not the same it will pay for ten. Meaning that, the gluts of produce flooding the markets raised, at times, less than production costs and even subsidies were proving little comfort. So, what are governmets to do now; risk losing producers and face the prospect of food shortages, possibly a return to the bad old days of famine? No way. They decided to compensate and lure them to stay on their farms effectively paying them not to grow. This allowed the ecconomics to stabalise - I know a little about the fresh produce industry and believe me, tomatoes at ten pence/cents a pound/kilo in the long term benefits no one. There is of course another option, Yes! Let’s buy from those poorer nations, Africa, India……We can get a good price from them and at the same time help them out; if only it were that simple. The scale of corruption and mis management in some of those countries is beyond belief. To name one small example of what can occur, for example, in Kenya - a corrupt security oficial at the airport would not allow ten pallets of green beans to be loaded on a British Airways cargo hold unless he was paid a handsome sum. This is an incident I became aware of quite some years ago and was assured at the time that it was normal practice although not always subdued to - on more than one ocassion tons of produce were left to rot in airport holding bays - it did not occur to airport officials that it could have been a relative of his braking his/her back picking those delicate little green beans and then placing them soldier file into those little two kilo boxes.

Yes, I know, it seems a silly example but it gives a little of what is the essence in these countries where personal gain exceeds any priority of what may be nationally important - I do believe that one or two african leaders in the past, and present, are testament to that.

And now, our beloved Financial Times as well as the Ecconomist suggest that Spain, Brasil, India and China should form part of the ‘G’ nations. I end this little piece by saying that, although corruption is prevelant in all nations, (to a certain degree), in the above four (not totally sure about Brasil) it is a national pastime.

Hope I don’t offend, but that’s just how it is.

And before we continue to blame the superior nations for the current state of world affairs (I don’t think things are that bad), we, the public ,are to blame for the financial crisis, for the housing bubbles and every other little occurence that flitters by - my bank manager most certainly did not put a gun to my head and say “Go ahead, punk, don’t take this mortgage and make my day”. But I had to buy a bigger house - just think how much this five bedroom mansion will be worth in a couple of years time. As did not the car salesman when offering finance on a petrol guzzling super sleek, but not totally necessary, new car (not totally necessay if you exclude the jealousy incurred on my neighbours). Actually, I can’t remember the last time anybody putting a gun to my head; I guess it’s all down to the momentum of my own greed and senseless gluttony that really provoked the current state of affairs. Add my sins to the millions more around the world and what do you get?

The issue here is if they are going to remain G8 or G9 or G7 or G4…