The Summit of Group of Eight industrialized nations, or abbreviated as the G8 summit, is due to convene at Heiligendamm, a pictureque, scenic seaside town in northern Germany on Wednesday and Thursday (or June 6-8) and, at the same time, leaders of the five major developing countries China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa have been invited for talks with their G8 counterparts on five leading themes, namely, climate policy, fuel energy, intellectual property right (IPR) protection, investment liberalization and the development of Africa, whereas weather change and Africa's development have been cited as the priority topics to address at the summit, which is also vividly dubbed as the "weather summit" by Western reporters, because hosting Germany takes weather change as a vital and crucial topic.

"Weather discord" hard to patch up

Right on the eve of the G8 summit, US President George W. Bush in his interview with European media reporters proposed a long-term strategy on weather change strategy, that is, to urge 15 leading greenhouse gas emitting nations around the globe to discuss and set a long-term target concerning the greenhouse gas emission before the end of 2008. But he still held that it was up to the individual nations to work out their own emission reduction ratios. At the same time, he indirectly criticized German's attitude to exclude the use of nuclear energy. If people really think of reducing the greenhouse gas emission, he acknowledged, they should turn to an initiative to expand access to the nuclear energy for civil use.

To counter Bush's above-mentioned new proposal, EU is exclusive or offensive in its reaction, as its member nations regard it as merely a platitude, neither with restrictions imposed on emission quotas nor with any means of trading with emission quotas. EU insisted on a specific, restrictive emission reduction goal; it holds that any actions to curb global weather change have to implement within the framework of the United Nations, and that a multinational conference hosted by the United States within the UN framework can hardly arouse its interest.

Although Chancellor Angela Merkel of hosting Germany has shown her attitude of welcome to Bush's new proposal, it is not difficult for anyone of good sense to see clearly and distinctly such a welcome is only to add a joyous mood to the summit. In fact, great differences existing between the EU and the U.S. can hardly be covered up. Before the summit, Germany called for a statement limiting worldwide temperature rise in this century to 2 degrees Celsius and cuts to global greenhouse gas emission to 50 percent below 1990 level by the year 2050. But chances for a consensus seem dim, and Angela Merkel is said not to harbor any illusion for the concrete emission goal. To date, her wording in this respect remains somewhat ambiguous.

Moreover, leaders of the new emerging countries contend that the Western developed nations are mainly to blame for changes in global weather conditions, and their countries should, too, take their due accountabilities within the framework of sustained development under the principle of taking the shared yet differentiating responsibilities with the developed nations. So the latter should work harder to intensify their trying effort to lessen their absolute emission amounts while honoring their commitment to provide those developing countries with fund assistance and technological transfer.

Aid to Africa has to be honored

Since the 1999 Koln G7 summit in Germany and the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005, Africa as a whole has become a major topic for the third time, with its contents focused on its economic development, and the fight against poverty and AIDS. Germany has maintained that the G8-Africa relationship as the "reform partnership" with an implication to help African countries to press ahead with the better benign work of governing or administration, further improving investment conditions, spurring the displaying of democracy and justice, and reducing corruption. So Germany has invited leaders of the five African countries, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana to the summit because, in the view of Germany, these countries can be cited as the"models" of African countries as their improved governing or administration complies with the desires of Western nations.

In recent years, the economy of African nations has been growing at an annual rate of 4.5 percent, Amid the ongoing economic globalization, Africa, nevertheless, was once abandoned and thrown far behind. The solution of the Africa issue conforms to the interests of the relevant parties, and a common consensus has been reached for the African continent not to be marginalized.

As a matter of fact, leading members of G8 have bet or staked their vital security, economic and strategic interests in Africa, and an increasing attention to the continent derives from their substantial demands. Developing nations helping Africa to attain a long-term stability and to improve or overcome its state of poverty and backwardness can not only benefit the people of Africa but, from a long-term point of view, facilitate uprootingin non-traditional security threats and potential hidden hazards for developed countries as well. Consequently, the international community unanimously aspires for the developed nations to assist African in deeds rather than in words of sheer commitment.

Editor: Yan