G8 Research Group

TORONTO, CANADA – Today, a report surveying the G8 nations’ fulfillment of promises is being released by the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto, the world’s leading source of analysis on the G8.

The 2009 Final Compliance Report is an assessment of the progress made by each G8 member towards complying with the commitments made at the 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit. Among the 24 commitments monitored by the G8 Research Group this year are climate change, counter-terrorism, African development, regional security, piracy, trade and financial reform. G8 members are individually assessed and scored on their compliance with each commitment and then compared with the other member states.

The United Kingdom, Japan and Canada have shown the greatest fulfillment of promises, placing first through third. Japan has taken last place, failing to fulfill many of its commitments. The average score of all the G8 nations is on par with their performance in previous years.

In specific issue areas, trade is notable as being the only commitment to receive a negative score, indicating a failure to prevent the raising of new barriers to trade. Low performance was also noted in commitments dealing with the international framework for development assistance.

Strong commitment from the G8 was visible across several security and climate change issue areas. All of the G8 nations fulfilled their promises on the issues of Piracy and the development of clean energy technologies. Mixed results were found among financial commitments and health specific commitments.

The report’s more than 400 pages of analysis are composed by a group of over 150 analysts that are recruited from a pool of top-calibre undergraduate and graduate students. These analysts are part of an international network of scholars, professionals and students that make up the G8 Research Group, an independent organization, based at the University of Toronto, that aims to serve as the leading source of analysis on the G8.

The G8 Research Group will be on site at the 2010 summit, available for comment both by email and in person. The full report can be found at g8.utoronto.ca

For more information contact:

Erin Fitzgerald, Chair

Email: erin.kelly.fitzgerald@gmail.com

or

Amadeus Domaradzki, Director of Communications

E-mail:  media@g8live.org