34th G8 summit
The G8 summit in Tōyako 2008 was a meeting of the Group of Eight in Japanese Tōyako. The total 34th G8 Summit was held to 9 July 2008 of 7. For the first time participated since the previous summit newly appointed Heads of State or Government of Russia, the United Kingdom and the host country Japan, Dmitry Medvedev, Gordon Brown and Yasuo Fukuda. U.S. President George W. Bush will be leaving before the next G8 summit, he represented his nation so for the last time. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took after several years of interruption attended a G8 summit.
- 2.1 Africa
- 2.2 Climate change and sustainable energy sources
- 2.3 World Economy
- 2.4 Security Policy
Participant
Invited observers
- African Union African Union
- CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
- European union European Union
- International Atomic Energy Agency International Atomic Energy Agency
- International Energy Agency
- , United Nations
- UNESCO UNESCO
- World Bank
- World Health Organization World Health Organization
- World Trade Organization
Topics
Africa
It is expected that the future of Africa will play an important role in the deliberations. In April 2007, the French news agency Agence France-Presse had reported that host Fukuda had called a common policy towards Africa as an urgent objective of the G8 discussions in conversation with the former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. All the more is this topic back into the spotlight after last year the conciliation of aid for the continent and negotiation on the debt of countries had not formed a focus on the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. Even before the Commission for Africa had been expelled in 2005 on the report that suggesting the Africa policy should rather be discussed at the 34th Summit of 2008. Fits to the 4th International Tokyo Conference on African Development ( TICAD ) was held in late May 2008 in Yokohama. The British think tank Overseas Development Institute (ODI ) also expects that Japan would continue to pursue its back in 2000 at the 26th round of the G8 in Okinawa set focus on developing countries.
Climate change and sustainable energy sources
In spring 2007, Fukuda announced that his cabinet would draft a climate change agreement that will find the support of China and the United States. The post-Kyoto process was expected to be the subject of discussions. This includes the specification of the commitments given at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali. The final declaration of the summit participants of the shared vision speak, by 2050 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent. In Heiligendamm, this intention was only " seriously [ taken ] into account " been. It also emphasizes the importance of the contribution of emerging markets to achieve this objective. To this end, a meeting of the G8 and outreach countries as well as Australia and Indonesia took place on the last day of the summit. Theme of this meeting was energy security and climate change.
In this context, the Japanese government wants to promote the use of nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt common guidelines for the safety of nuclear power plants at the G8 summit.
World economy
Another central theme of the summit was the development of the world economy in the context of the financial and real estate crisis. The statement to the world economy but still delivers an optimistic outlook on the future development. The rising commodity and food prices could best be countered by open and transparent markets.
One focus was on the protection of intellectual property. The became public in May 2008 draft of the proposed Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ( ACTA), which provides a rigorous prosecution of copyright infringement has been sharply criticized in advance of NGOs. The summit participants expressed their intention to sign the Agreement until the end of 2008.
Security Policy
On the agenda were the fight against terrorism and the aggravation of the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology. With regard to North Korea, the pursuit was confirmed for a diplomatic solution within the framework of the Six -Party Talks, in which also the particularly important for the Japanese government issue of abducted Japanese nationals should be included. Iran was asked by the participants to halt its uranium enrichment program in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Protests
As with the previous G8 summits tens of thousands of protesters were expected to Hokkaidō, 20,000 police to have been in use. According to an Indymedia post more than 40 activists were arrested from the union environment. On June 29, found first demonstrations with over a thousand participants took place in Tokyo.