Group of Eight

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Group of Eight (G8)

Founded	1994
Headquarters	Varies
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The Group of Eight (G8) is a forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Group ministers meet throughout the year and the member states meet at an annual summit meeting.

In the summer of 2008, 17 major economy leaders held a summit in Japan to advance shared objectives of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, contribute to ongoing negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and identify actions to be taken immediately.^[1]

The G8 has no headquarters, no permanent staff or budget. The country that holds the presidency is the host country for the G8 summit of that given year and has the responsibility of paying for all costs associated with it.

1 History
2 News
3 Resources
4 References

History

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The formation of the G8 began at the Naples summit in 1994 after Russia was added to the Group of Seven (G7) countries.^[2]

The history of the G8 (previously the G7) began in 1975 when at the initiative of the French president of that time, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the first meeting of the leaders of six countries was organized at Rambouillet - a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris. Canada joined a year later.

Since 1977 the leader of the European Commission has also been invited to the summits. Initially, the G7 primarily discussed macroeconomic issues and global development trends, but current political issues were later added to the agenda.^[3]

News

G8 leaders on July 8, 2008 agreed to a carbon emissions cut of at least 50 percent by 2050 and commitment to the principle of mid-term reduction or stabilization targets. Their offer was taken to eight big non-G8 countries – including China and India. The Financial Times reported that agreeing at the summit to set a goal of halving emissions by 2050 was likely to be President George W. Bush's final contribution to the climate change debate.^[4]Only the U.S. and Russia held out against adopting the target in 2007, making the co-operation by Presidents George W. Bush and Dmitry Medvedev a significant move forward.^[5]