Posted by FindingDulcinea Staff
July 7 will mark the beginning of the 34th annual Group of Eight meeting. Japan will be hosting this year’s summit which will discuss energy consumption and global warming as its two main issues.
This year’s will be President George W. Bush’s eighth and final summit and insiders are predicting that it will be a “harmonious” one. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will make his first G-8 appearance this year as “other leaders try to discern his views and get a better understanding of the division of power between him and his predecessor Vladimir Putin, now prime minister,” Reuters reports.
Reuters says this year’s conference is notable for the weak leadership of those in attendance. “In opinion polls, most of the G8 leaders had ratings below 40 percent.”
With world leaders facing critical problems such as the global energy crisis and climate change, the G-8 is an attempt to unite the leading industrial countries in a joint attempt to increase energy efficiency, among other goals. The G-8 produced a scorecard to rank the top 8 industrial nations and ranked Britain most energy efficient, with France and Germany close behind; the United States was ranked last. Japan has also proposed a new initiative called Cool Earth 50, which aims to create an international effort to cut global greenhouse gasses in half by the year 2050.
Some analysts are skeptical of the G-8’s capability to find solutions for “intractable problems,” and insist that the summit will produce little more than “statements of concern.” Others, however, remain hopeful that it can produce “fruitful discussions that pave the way to a better world.”
Find out more at FindingDulcinea.com
Leave Your Comments