G8 leaders face series of crises (BBC)

Sunday, 6 July 2008

Rising food and oil costs, an uncertain global economy, climate change and Zimbabwe's political crisis face the G8 leaders who are gathering in Japan.


The summit is being held at a secluded resort on the northern island of Hokkaido guarded by some 20,000 police.

Protesters have been gathering ahead of the three-day forum starting on Monday.

A US official said the gathering was likely to "strongly condemn" Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe over a disputed presidential election run-off vote.

The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Leaders begin arriving on Sunday. US President George W Bush arrived in time to celebrate his 62nd birthday in Japan.

China, India and South Africa will be among other key nations attending.

Japan has spent a record sum of money and deployed about 20,000 police to seal off the summit at the remote lakeside resort of Toyako.

Several thousand demonstrators marched through Sapporo, the city closest to the venue, on Saturday, demanding that G8 leaders take action on global warming, poverty and rising food prices.

Four people were arrested in minor scuffles with police.

Violent anti-globalisation marches have marred past G8 meetings.



Food reserve system

Last year, Japanese officials said this summit would be about climate change and reaching agreement on a post-Kyoto Accord framework to cut greenhouse gas emissions, says the BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda had said he would like to get agreement on 50% overall reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050.

But the rising food and oil prices and their effect on the global economy and the world's poorest nations have moved up the agenda and to address them, China, India and several African nations have been invited to attend.

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that the G8 countries wanted to create a system of food reserves that would act to stabilise prices.

There has been a number of food riots in a range of countries over prices that the World Bank says have doubled in the past three years.

Another key issue will be North Korea's nuclear programme.

Mr Bush will meet Mr Fukuda amid Japanese concern that the North's recent declaration of its nuclear activities has led the US to signal removing Pyongyang from a terror blacklist.



Zimbabwe violence

South African President Thabo Mbeki will attend, fresh from crisis discussions in Zimbabwe on Saturday with President Robert Mugabe about last month's disputed election.

He has been the chief regional negotiator on the Zimbabwe crisis, and has been trying to persuade Mr Mugabe to form a government of national unity.

The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, pulled out of last month's second round presidential election vote, citing campaign violence.

On the way to Japan, a White House official said that the G8 would "strongly condemn what Mugabe has done".

A small group of African states has joined the European Union, the US and other Western nations in criticising the way the election was run.


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洞爺湖サミット、これだけ警備体制を随分前から徹底させてものすごい費用を投入して、「たった三日！？」と正直思ったけれども、主要８ヶ国の主要が１週間も日本に滞在している余裕はないか

世界中で石油、食糧インフレが横行してデモが各国で起こっている中での今回のサミットでは果たして何が決まり、どんな話し合いがなされるのだろう。既に当日までに膨大な時間をかけて、各国の官僚及び外交関係の人達は主なやり取りは終えているのだろうし、「サミットのためにこんなにコストをかけて首脳を集めさせて握手させるだけなんて、今のIT時代に無駄だ」という意見もあるようだけれど、実際に直接８ヶ国＋中国やインド、南アフリカ等のリーダー達が一堂に介し、それぞれの自国の現状、惨状をぶつけ合う事でしか生まれる事のないものもあると僕は信じてる。

自分達の国で開催されるサミットなのだから、みんな注目しましょう！！　

しかし東京の色んなところの駅のロッカーを使用禁止にするまでするなんてすごい警戒態勢だな、と思います...

昨日テレビ朝日のチャンネルで放送された古館さんによる環境特番を観た人達は何かしら感じるものがあったはず。矛盾も多く感じたのではないでしょうか。この世の中、情報は溢れるほどあって全てを知る事が出来そうで、情報が嘘か真かを見極める
事は逆によりいっそう難しくなってきている気がします。何かひとつの情報ソースに偏るのではなく、違う側面から捉えなければ、環境問題というのは世界規模での解決は不可能なのだな、とつくづく最近感じます。