G8

Today the leaders of the most powerful industrialised countries have got together in Heiligendamm, Germany, on the Baltic coast. So far the television news seems to be mainly around the various photoshoots of leaders, their spouses and about the protestors around the edge of the site, which is reached by steam railway.

The main purpose for the Angela Merkel hosted event is supposed to be the influence these leaders can have upon matters such as global poverty (through debt relief) and global warming. Indeed, today there's been some discussions about plans to halve carbon emissions by 2050, although whether 43 years is really an accelerated pace is a moot point.

Non Kyoto protocol US President Bush came to the summit refusing to agree to targets to reduce greenhouse gases but he has made a proposal for a separate meeting of the world’s top emitters for discussions on ways of combating global warming. Why talk about it now when everyone's together, when he can host a separate meeting on his ranch in Texas?

Another early reported topics seems to be about whether Russia's Mr Putin is going share an Azerbadjani radar station with the US and whether this means Mr Bush won't need to put his new anti-missile missile systems in Europe. Mr Putin is saying that he won't put missile systems targeted at Europe on his borders if the USA doesn't create a new missile shield in Europe. Somehow this all seems a long way from talking about global poverty and warmng.

A protest related to this summit occurred a few days ago on the river bank opposite the Houses of Parliament in London. The essence was a reminder of the G8's previous and partially unfulfilled promises on debt relief. The protestors (including Midge Ure and Annie Lennox, in the photo) simply used alarm clocks timed to ring at two thirty pm, as a 'wake up call' to the G8 to remember the original purpose and promises of the meeting.