The G-8 summit in Japan has a lot on its agenda this time.

While climate change takes central place, there are other competing issues that the leaders of the eight big industrial nations need to address.

To start with, the host country, Japan, wants an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases up to 50 per cent by 2050. This is an ambitious goal, but necessary to save the planet from the dire consequences of global warming.

Equally pressing are the issues of food crisis, soaring fuel prices, the sinking US dollar and tensions over Iran’s standoff with the West because of its nuclear programme.

In a recent report, the World Bank linked the food crisis to the increasing demand for biofuel. This, in turn, is triggered by the dramatic surge in fuel prices. The soaring prices of fuel are also linked to the sinking US dollar; all this shows that these crises are closely linked and cannot be addressed except in a holistic manner.

The big eight nations cannot, however, be expected to come up with a plan of action to solve these global challenges all at once. The prudent thing for the big eight to do now would be to concentrate on the two most pressing global concerns, namely fuel prices and the food crisis.

There must be something the developed countries can do to stem the tide of soaring fuel prices and the accompanying food crisis. For starters, the major industrial nations must put a halt to diverting agricultural products for energy purposes. Feeding people is more important than filling car tanks.

This goal requires national and international legislation. These countries can put a ceiling on oil prices, beyond which oil will not be purchased from any source. If all major countries apply this in unison, the oil cartel will have no option but to offer oil at prices acceptable to the international community.

What is needed, therefore, is an international mechanism that will determine oil prices in a fair and reasonable manner, and impose it on the international market. A temporary freeze on oil imports would send a signal to oil-producing countries and speculators that the international community no longer tolerates a one-sided imposition of prices.

The G-8 countries should be more resolute in dealing with the oil prices, as they are the root causes of the accompanying world crises. If they don’t act now, the G-8 risk to become irrelevant, succumbing to the overriding global challenges.