Japan Press Weekly

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2008 July 9 - 15 [POLITICS]

G8 Toyako Summit closes without effectively addressing urgent global matters

The G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit that focused on the issues of global warming, the food crisis, and market speculation, closed its three-day session on July 9 after adopting a declaration and the Chair’s Summary.

On the same day, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi issued the following statement:

The Toyako Summit was tasked to work out solutions on a series of questions that have important bearings on the survival of humanity, including a drastic cut in greenhouse gas emissions and restraints on the soaring prices of energy sources and food connected with the rampage of speculative money. But the industrialized countries in the summit meeting failed to seriously tackle any of these tasks.

As regards global warming, they revealed their inability to meet their historical responsibility to set a long-term goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention setting a mid-term goal which is a pressing task.

No effective anti-speculation measures were set out at Lake Toya, including direct controls over misconduct.

The U.S. government, which has consistently been reluctant to address these issues, and the Japanese government, which, by following the U.S., failed to take the initiative at the Summit as the host country, are to blame for the failure.
- Akahata, July 10, 2008