July 14, 2008
The 2008 G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, came up tragically short on climate change and a host of urgent problems affecting poor people in developing countries. To be sure, the leaders of the world’s rich industrial countries expostulated on all the right topics: the world economy, environment and climate change, development and Africa, and global food security. But their prescriptions and promised actions seem unlikely to make much difference in the real world. CGD director of communications and policy Lawrence MacDonald argues that it’s time to scrap the G8 in favor of a new power caucus that includes such developing country giants as Brazil, China and India. What do you think?