Blair defined the two major issues as Africa and Climate Change and began with the over-obvious statement that you can “never achieve everything you want to achieve”. He praised campaigners, especially Make Poverty History, for a campaign “conducted with compassion and dignity” (not mentioning those exceptions of which we are all aware) and said that the measures agreed “will not make poverty history but show how it can be done and show the political will to do it”.

The measures agreed by all the G8 leaders are:

• $50bn annual development aid to Africa by 2010, more than doubling the 2004 level – apparently with no trade strings attached. Some of this is intended to ensure universal primary education
• $40bn debt relief to 18 poorest qualifying (mainly African) countries *
• Universal access to HIV/Aids medication by 2010
• Action on malaria and TB
• Commitment to an eventual end to agricultural subsidies, hopefully by 2010 – an end date will be defined in the Dofar Round trade discussions in Hong Kong in December.
• G8 Markets will be opened and export infrastructures developed to help poorer countries access them. Some African nations have agreed to remove trade barriers between their countries.
• "Not charity for Africa but a partnership with Africa".
• $3bn promised for the Palestinian Authority over the “next few years” for investment in “the infrastructure of a state”.
• G8 commits to training 20,000 peacekeepers for Africa for UN/African Union forces.
• African leaders at the summit have made a commitment to “democracy, good governance and the rule of law” as part of the deal.
• Money is necessary but not sufficient – vibrant African leadership is the only thing which will allow Africa to follow benefit from these measures.


On climate change, the only agreement was a consensus that the problem needs to be tackled.

There was no agreement on climate change. Blair knew that the G8 were never going to resolve the dispute over Kyoto, but said that it was “imperative to bring the US into the consensus that: “climate change is a problem, that human activity is contributing to it and that we have to tackle it with urgency”. Otherwise it will be impossible to ensure that the industrialising nations, particularly China and India, are part of the dialogue, and emissions will not be reduced. A “pathway to new dialogue” has been opened: Britain will host a meeting to discuss this on 1st November 2005 and Putin has put it on Russia’s agenda for next year’s G8.

If the clear plan of action is implemented as agreed, Blair believes it will save thousands – even millions of lives over the next few years and “will make poverty history” (hollow laughs all round).

* These are: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia