Unless the G20 can adequately deal with climate change, development assistance to poor countries, food security and the financial crisis, globalization can’t be made to work, says the G20’s inventor, former prime minister Paul Martin.

He said that If the G20, at its next summit in Korea this fall, doesn’t send the right signal to the forthcoming Mexico conference on climate-change finance with the result that the conference fails, the ability of the developing world to survive climate change will be very much at risk.

If it doesn’t recognize that there will be another major food crisis and take steps to ameliorate it – at a time of rising populations, food export freezes and disruptive market mechanisms – havoc will be wreaked, especially in Africa.

And if the G20 doesn’t agree to international regulation of the world’s banks, the next financial crisis may well be too big for any stimulus package to save the world’s economies.

In addition to rights of states, he said, there also must be duties of states. The impact from poorly regulated U.S. and European banks with excess leverage and inadequate capitalization and liquidity spilled across borders to harm the economies of other states – hence the need for bank regulations and monitoring that transcend national borders.

Economist Sylvia Ostry, for decades one of the federal government’s most senior public servants and international negotiators, suggested at the Couchiching Conference that the G20 at its next meeting appoint an eminent-person’s group from among its member states to set the organization’s agenda for the next five years.