The Group of Eight certainly has a way with words.
Over the past three days, the G8 club of rich nations has been sequestered in conference rooms at a hot-spring resort in northern Japan, emerging occasionally to issue statements, communiqués and all manner of documents.
Even by the standards of international trade and diplomacy, G8 language can be unusual, and sometimes downright weird.
Come again?
The effort to satisfy everybody means that the group’s statements can be difficult to translate into simple language.
Consider this important sentence in the group’s statement this week on climate change:
”We seek to share with all parties to the UNFCCC the vision of, and together with them to consider and adopt in the UNFCCC negotiations, the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050, recognising that this global challenge can only be met by a global response, in particular, by the contributions from all major economies, consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.”
Just as the key words from last year’s statement have been determined to be ”consider seriously” the 2050 goals, this year the bets are on ”at least” and ”shared vision”.
Business as usual
Then there’s the question why they don’t just say what they mean? What does it mean when they say they will try to achieve ”a deviation from business-as-usual emissions”?
Acronyms and city names are batted about in a shorthand that can make a newcomer feel very small.
Everybody around here knows exactly what was agreed at Heiligendamm and Gleneagles, what the MEM is (it’s the major economies meeting) and how much more time we’ve got to fulfill the MDGs (millennium development goals, by 2015).
And if you feel a frisson of excitement pondering numbers, the G8 is the place for you. One of the key issues absorbing the G8 at the moment is whether it should be bigger and if so how big? Is the G20 more appropriate or should it be G8 plus five?
Should mid-term goals on slashing carbon emissions be 25% to 40% by 2020, or 80% to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050?
Pity the porters
But the most unique and best loved of G8 terms is the ”sherpa”, an official whose job it is to prepare for the annual G8 gathering of leaders from some of the world’s richest nations.
Sherpas are a people living in the Himalayan mountains who are often hired as guides and porters for climbers and are known for their incredible stamina and skill.
The conventional wisdom is that the G8 term derives from the idea that they help their leaders reach the ”summit”.
The idea has spread. Assistants to the sherpas are called sous-sherpas (as in sous-chef). The assistants to the assistants are simply ”yaks”. – Reuters