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G20 Summit Begins In Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA (AHN) – Leaders from nations representing 85 percent of the world’s economy converge on Thursday in Pittsburgh for a the second G20 Summit this year to review progress on addressing the global financial crisis.
More than 30 heads of state will be gathering at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the first convention center in the world to be awarded the highest certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. They meet during the tail-end of a United Nations General Assembly session in New York, and following G20 and G8 summits earlier this year.
The G20 includes the world’s seven most industrialized nations and other countries such as Argentina, China, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa and South Korea. The group met in April in London amid concerns over how to address the the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and reach consensus about whether regulation or more stimulus was needed.
In July, the G8 met in L’Aquila, Italy and reaffirmed their commitments to strengthen financial regulation and reject protectionism. The world’s richest nations also pledged $20 billion for global food security, and adopted a 2°C global warming limit and a goal of reducing greenhouse emissions by half by 2050.
In Pittsburgh, President Barack Obama will greet leaders and their spouses upon arriving late Thursday. He also hosts a working dinner at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
On Friday, Obama joins several sessions and a lunch with G20 leaders, and holds a press conference in the afternoon.
Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner had met with G20 finance ministers and Central Bank governors earlier this month to prepare for the summit. He had called on his counterparts to continue their work, emphasizing that the final steps in recovery was just as crucial.
“We have broad agreement on a very strong set of principles for building a more stable global financial system. But we need to move now to put that framework in place,” Geithner said. “The fundamental test of reform is to make the system resilient enough to withstand future storms… A crucial part of financial reform is to change compensation practices. On February 4 of this year, the President first outlined a set of proposals to reform compensation practices, both for institutions that receive exceptional financial assistance and for all banks. These proposals were designed to constrain excess risk taking by making sure that compensation is tied to risk and long-term performance.”
“We need to bring the sense of common purpose and urgency that we demonstrated at the peak of the crisis to the challenges of restoring growth and to reforming the financial system,” he added. “We have made a lot of progress, but we have a ways to go.”
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