News analysis: More words than action at G8 summit

By Wang Jingzhong and Bao Erwen

TOYAKO, Japan, July 9 (Xinhua) -- In spite of demonstrating their resolve to tackle the world's most pressing issues by releasing a series of statements, the Group of Eight (G8) once again stopped short of pledging immediate and concrete action instead of words, to the disappointment of many.

While it is a positive sign the leaders are hammering home their determination to tackle the issues, the G8 nations, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the world economy, should turn their words into action, analysts say.

The G8 leaders were gathering in the northern Japanese resort of Toyako for their annual summit, as the world is experiencing financial turmoil, fuel and food price hikes and a potentially disastrous rise in global temperatures.

NO BREAKTHROUGH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is a major issue discussed in the working session on the second day of the three-day summit.

In a statement, the G8 leaders said they "seek to share" the vision of the goal of achieving at a least 50 percent reduction of global emissions by 2050.

While declaring "each of us will implement ambitious mid-term goals in order to achieve absolute emissions reduction," the G8 nations failed to specify what their mid-term goals are.

And the statement only set a long-term goal for chopping global emissions rather than targets for each of the G8 nations.

Moreover, it failed to mention a base year for the reduction, as some analysts pointed out.

The agreement "is an important and significant step forward" in the efforts to fight global warming, said Koji Tsuruoka, director-general for global issues with the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

However, the Japanese official stopped short of describing the agreement as a breakthrough, noting: "It is naive to think a breakthrough can be made."

Considering the fact some of the G8 members, notably the U.S., have long refused to set numerical targets for its carbon emissions, some may argue that the G8 statement at least represents a step forward on the issue of climate change, analysts note.

However, many analysts quickly pointed out that a deal that falls short of mid-term targets is unlikely to make people take these long-term commitments seriously.

"Unless the G8 leaders agree on immediate action and medium-term targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, any long-term promises will be unattainable," said Oxfam, an international aid agency.

Even on the long-term goal, the G8 nations' commitment looked shaky as they wanted to bring major developing countries on board.

In their process of industrialization, developed countries emitted huge amounts of greenhouse gas without binding limits, and their current per capita emissions are much higher than those in developing countries.

Economic interests was the key reason behind the G8 nations' failure to take a decisive move on climate change, reflecting the dilemma they are facing in solving global issues while carefully taking care of their own interests, according to the analysts.

INADEQUATE MEASURES FOR WORLD ECONOMY

The world economy is another major topic at the working session of the G8 summit. But the leaders wrote few effective "prescriptions" for the issue.

The G8 leaders said they were positive about the outlook of the world economy, despite problems.

The leaders expressed their "strong concern about elevated fuel and food prices since they pose a serious challenge to the stable growth worldwide."

They also said they will resist protectionist pressures against international trade and investment in all its manifestations.

While the G8 leaders attach great importance to the most pressing issues that are threatening the world economy, they failed to come up with specific measures.

Economists have blamed the U.S. subprime loan crisis for the slowing global economy, yet the G8 leaders did not put forth any new measures to deal with the crisis during their working session and they only repeated their previous suggestions for strengthening the financial system.

On the issue of the WTO Doha round which is critical to economic growth and development, there was no exciting news from the G8 summit.

The failure to make a breakthrough in the negotiations of the Doha round was due mainly to the sharp differences between developing countries and the U.S. and European countries over whether the latter should cancel agricultural subsidies.

The G8 summit also failed to write an effective "prescription" to curb speculation in oil, whose prices have shot up to record highs.

CIRCUMVENTING HOT SECURITY ISSUES

A host of factors, ranging from the Israeli-Palestine conflicts to the Iran nuclear issue, an unstable Afghanistan and the chaotic situation in Iraq and to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, are putting world security at risk.

Before the G8 summit began, there were high hopes that the leaders would make new moves in efforts to resolve the issues. However, their statement failed to satisfy the expectations of of many people.

The statement said progress had been made on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through the Six-Party process since last year and it urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to take a bigger stride in the process of denuclearization.

The leaders also expressed their firm support for the efforts by China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and the U.S. in resolving the nuclear issue in Iran.

However, the statement hardly touched on the issues of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestine conflicts. Instead, it devoted most of the pages to the G8's determination to fight terrorism and prevent proliferation.