G8 pledges to tackle food, oil price crisis

Tokyo (VNA) - Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial countries closed their meeting on July 9 pledging to act on soaring oil and food prices, but failed to narrow differences with poor nations on how to fight climate change.

In their joint statement, the leaders said that while global growth had “moderated,” they remained positive about the future and they called for efforts to bring down oil and food prices.

The leaders said climate change was one of the great global challenges of our time and that they would continue to work together to promote the success of the Copenhagen climate change conference scheduled for late next year.

However, the statement said only that developed countries would implement their own goals for cutting greenhouse emissions and developing economies must also take action. No specific targets were outlined for either group.

The Group of Eight Summit was held in Hokkaido, Japan, from July 7-9. The G8 powers comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.-