What did the Washington Summit achieve?

In Washington on 15 November 2008, leaders of G20 countries agreed an action plan to fundamentally reform the way the financial system is supervised around the world, to make it more robust and prevent such a crisis happening again.

Work to take forward this action plan was mandated to G20 Finance Ministers and we have committed to delivering significant progress by the next Leaders' Summit.

Finance Ministers of the G20 now need to take forward work to deliver the 47 points in the Action Plan from the Washington Summit communiqué.

We propose to do so through four working groups:

Enhancing sound regulation and strengthening transparency

Reinforcing international cooperation and promoting integrity in financial markets

Reforming the IMF

Reforming the World Bank and multilateral development banks (MDBs).

Will the London Summit agenda cover climate change?

The main forum for climate change will remain with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

However, we were clear in Washington that we must not allow the financial turmoil to distract us from meeting our wider objectives to meet the challenges of climate change and development. It is possible leaders will want to consider the link between economic recovery and moving to a low carbon growth path, as well as climate aspects of international financial institutions reform to ensure we can ensure a green recovery.

The G20 Finance Ministers will stick to their agreed work plan to consider climate financing issues, with the intention of feeding in this work to the broader UNFCCC process which will conclude in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

The aim is to support and complement the United Nations process and we look forward to discussing a range of mechanisms including, in particular, further development of carbon markets.

Why do we need coordinated action?

This current crisis affects the world's economy not just individual countries or regions. No country is fully insulated from the effects and we must all play our part to reform and improve the international systems.

Many countries have already taken action to minimise the effects of this crisis. And there has also been effective coordinated action through Central Banks on interest rates and action through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilise struggling economies.

More recently, as the financial crisis has deepened it has spread from the largest economies to emerging markets across the world. Its legacy of recession in advanced and emerging economies is expected to lower economic growth rates in the rest of the world.

As members of the G20, we recognise that all G20 countries have a strong interest and a substantial role to play in supporting the global economy and strengthening the financial apparatus, and this is why we are taking coordinated actions at an international level.

What are the implications of G8 enlargement?

The G8 process is separate to that of the G20 Finance Ministers or the Leaders' Summit, although there is coordination between them.

Discussion as to the future size and constituency of the G8 is ongoing.

(http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk March 31, 2009)