G8 Summit

High food and fuel costs to dominate G8 talks

Article published on the 2008-07-07 Latest update 2008-07-08 09:43 TU

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and US President George Bush during a press conference on 6 July 2008.
(Photo: AFP)

Zimbabwe's controversial re-election, Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear programme, relations with North Korea and Middle East peace efforts are also on the political agenda. The leaders of seven African countries, Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, are joining the G8 leaders for the opening lunch discussions to draw attention to the effects of the global crisis on their populations.

Food prices have almost doubled in three years, setting off riots in many developing countries. The G8 leaders are to agree steps to fight the rising prices and to guarantee supplies. The measures will provide short-term relief to the crisis and a long-term strategy to increase world agricultural production.

 According to the World Bank, increasing food prices have led 100 million people to fall below the poverty line.

The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has already proposed the creation of a one billion euro EU fund to help farmers in developing countries.

Pope Benedict XVI called on G8 leaders to focus on the world's weakest and poorest people when they meet, as they were "more vulnerable now because of speculation and financial turbulence and their perverse effects on the prices of food and energy."

Aid groups are pressuring the G8 to live up to its past pledges of assistance to poor countries.  In 2005 the industrialised powers promised to increase aid to Africa by a further 25 billion dollars by 2010.  UN and African Union figures show that less that 25 per cent of that amount has been given.

Speaking to RFI's French Service, the head of Oxfam France, Luc Lamprière, said the G8 countries would have to fulfil the committments they had already undertaken.

In 2005, he explained, the G8 nations committed themselves to increasing the development budget in Africa but today 30 billion dollars which were pledged have not been paid.

Lamprière pointed out that the world's rich nations were able to find 1000 billion dollars to maintain the banking sector, but appeared unable to find smaller sums that were needed to help those hardest-hit by food prices.