By Andrew Grice in Hokkaido
The bill for the "working lunch" may double, but on its final day of their summit today the G8 leaders should be able to get more of a grip on the world's problems because they have opened their summit's doors to another eight countries.
The rich men's club - the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia - no longer dominates the world economy as it once did, and before long will not do so at all as China and India overtake most of the Group of Eight. As Hamish McRae argues powerfully today, the G8 club does not reflect the world's shifting centre of economic gravity. So today the club will offer a day membership ticket to China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea and Australia. Apparently their leaders will get six minutes each - for most of them, that's a long way to travel for six minutes. But at least it's a welcome reality check for the G8.
Between them, the "G16" account for 80 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, so next year's crucial talks on climate change will be high on the agenda. Already the so-called G5 emerging nations, including China and India, are saying that G8 leaders did not go anywhere near far enough in yesterday's pledge to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. (In fact, this could be called the G22 summit as six other African nations were invited along too).
The presence of nations like Brazil and Mexico might also help the summit give a nudge to the stalled world trade talks. Gordon Brown has been saying that it's "five to midnight" on trade for many hours but this time it's true, as a crucial meeting in Geneva approaches. With protectionist pressures rising during the US presidential election campaign, this really could be the last chance saloon. Indeed, Brown believes we might not have another global trade deal ever if the moment passes. That would be a disaster for Africa just when it needs a shot in the arm because of the food crisis.
What's striking here in how the world's problems interlink: for example, the oil price hike will hopefully concentrate minds on climate change, as the need for a green energy revolution becomes a "hard" economic issue rather than a "soft" environmental one. Let's hope world leaders get the message and put these huge problems before their domestic concerns. Brown certainly "gets it", and is trying hard to do his bit on oil prices. But he probably won't get much credit at home.
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