From ” The Economist “ of July 12,2008
….the summit was a let-down…G 8 leaders rose to the challenges posed by the “three Fs”-food,fuel and the financial credit crunch-with platitudes
The big disappointment was over climate change…despite…Last year,Germany’s chancellor,Angela Merkel overcame the reluctance of George Bush and got the G 8 to promise to “consider seriously” cutting greenhouse emissions by at least half by 2050.This time the G 8 voved to”consider and adopt” such cuts…Mr Bush has at last committed America to a quantifiable target….
Yet the strength of the G 8’s commitment starts to crumble….even without one cynical Russian diplomat pointing out how absurd it is for today’s politicians to take responsibility for meeting goals four decades from now….The G 8 could not come up even with nearer term goals to cut emissions-say,by 2020……
Big Challenges demand strong leaders.But if Mr Fukuda is weak domestically,Mr Brown looks little better.Mr Bush is a lame, unpopular duck.Nicolas Sarkozy of France struggles to comprehend how and why his voters’ enthusiasm has evaporated