G8 Summit: Success, or Less?

I'm just catching up on the decisions that were made at the unfortunately-interrupted G8 summit in Gleneagles over the past couple of days, but I found this BBC news analysis quite useful as a starting point. The author, Steve Schifferes, reports that the summit made some "unprecedented" moves forward, especially compared with past G8 meetings:

Among the items agreed to this week:

- A $50 billion aid and debt-cancellation package for Africa.
- Agreement to "renew efforts to forge a trade deal."
- A $3 billion aid package for the Palestinian authority.
- Pledge to increase access to AIDS treatment.
- A communique recognizing global climate change as a "serious long-term challenge" for the planet, with further steps to be taken at a November meeting. This is a step forward for the United States, even if a small one.

There are those who say that the summit didn't go far enough. And yes, it didn't solve every problem, and it didn't go as far in some areas (particularly climate change) as I would have liked. But world poverty's not going to be solved overnight, and neither is climate change - every step forward is good, and we need to remember not to make perfection the enemy of progress.

You can read the Gleneagles G8 communiques all together here [PDF].