The results of this week's Group of Eight summit show that the topics discussed, such as global warming and soaring oil and food prices, are so serious and of such great scale that the G8 nations cannot alone solve them. Discussions on global warming in particular highlighted a division between the G8 nations and emerging economies.
It is imperative that the leading industrialized nations and emerging economies do their most to overcome their differences. As Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, chair of the summit, said, all countries concerned, including their private sectors and civil societies, should participate in addressing the challenges the world faces, with the G8 nations providing leadership.
The G8 leaders made it clear that they will seek to share with other countries the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions at least by 50 percent by 2050 and together with them to consider and adopt the goal under United Nations-led negotiations. They also said they will implement "ambitious" midterm goals in order to accomplish "absolute emissions reductions."