G8 leaders under pressure on Zimbabwe and climate change

The world’s top industrialised nations face pressing financial and environmental troubles at their annual summit tomorrow, confronted with demands they reinvigorate the stumbling world economy, push ahead languishing climate change talks, and make good on pledges to battle poverty and hunger.

Leaders from the Group of Eight – the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia – began gathering in the northern Japanese resort village of Toyako today for three days of meetings among themselves and with heads of African nations and rapidly developing countries such as China.

The summit also coincides with demanding foreign policy issues such as the effort to strip North Korea of its nuclear weapons, mounting international pressure on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme, and the threat of UN Security Council sanctions on Zimbabwe over its recent one-sided presidential election run-off.

The meeting’s Japanese hosts poured security agents and riot police – about 20,000 of them – into the isolated venue and surrounding towns, sealing access to the summit hotel and cloistering the 5,000 journalists covering it at Rusutsu, a resort 20 miles away. Protesters were limited to rural villages or the distant city of Sapporo.

Despite the demanding agenda, concerns were high that the political uncertainties in some member countries – particularly the US, where US President George Bush is 200 days away from the end of his term – could prevent decisive action. The leaders of France, Japan and Britain also face domestic problems.

Mr Bush urged his fellow leaders to push forward stalled talks on world trade in the so-called Doha Round, and to pour more aid into Africa, after a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

“It’s an opportunity for us, Mr Prime Minister, to promote free and fair trade, and it’s going to be an essential part of the development agenda,” Mr Bush said.

“The truth of the matter is we can give grants, but the best way to help the impoverished around the world is through trade, it’s a proven fact.”

Climate change was a top agenda item for the summit. UN-led talks aimed at forging a new global warming accord by the end of 2009 have stalled because of deep disagreements over what targets to set for greenhouse gas reductions, and how much developing countries such as China and India should be required to participate.

It was still unclear whether nations would be able to agree to a goal of cutting their emissions by 50 percent by 2050. A more ambitious goal of setting nearer-term targets for 2020 was considered well beyond reach.

With global oil prices surging, the G8 leaders are expected to urge major oil producers to increase supplies while also calling for steps to improve energy efficiency and develop alternative sources of energy within their own economies. Oil spiked to a record 145.85 US dollars a barrel last Thursday.

It was unclear how effective a call by the G8 to boost oil production would be when the group does not include Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude, or any OPEC members.

The summit also is to extend the G8’s emphasis on Africa. Eight African leaders headed to Japan, and the summit faced rising expectations that it would address key problems such as food supplies, infectious diseases and economic development.

In a measure of the expectations on the group, Pope Benedict XVI urged the G8 to help the world’s poor.

“Many voices have been raised asking (G8 leaders) to realise the commitments made at previous G8 appointments and to courageously adopt all necessary measures to conquer the plagues of extreme poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy,” Benedict said while addressing pilgrims at the papal summer residence in the hill town of Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

Politics were also getting attention.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, scheduled to arrive in Japan tomorrow, said the G8 leaders would discuss how they can toughen sanctions on Zimbabwe in the wake of President Robert Mugabe’s widely denounced presidential election victory.

“I hope that we will also get support from our African colleagues here,” Mrs Merkel said in her weekly video message.

The European Union already has travel bans and an asset freeze in place on Mr Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean officials. The US also is seeking international sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his top aides.