Ahead of G20 Brown Says We Need Value-Based Economy

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown used a keynote speech in St Paul's Cathedral to urge world leaders arriving in London for the Summit on 2 April to create a global financial system that was 'fair not laissez-faire'.

With just two days to go until leaders of the G20 group of emerging and developed nations meet at the Excel Centre in East London, Mr Brown said they were determined to fight the 'new enemies' of global recession, climate chaos, unemployment, insecurity, and poverty.

'Leaders meeting in London must supply the oxygen of confidence to today's global economy and give people in all of our countries renewed hope for the future,' he said from a platform shared with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres.

The Prime Minister used his speech to call for a reform of financial regulation that should include 'global rules founded in shared global values'. He said: 'We must reshape the global economic system so that it respects the values we celebrate in everyday life.'

He said the Summit needed to 'clean up the banking system' and set rules to:

* make transparent the risks that banks take;
* bring hedge funds and shadow banking inside the regulatory net;
* ensure banks hold sufficient capital and ensure their liquidity;
* require boards who understand their business and take responsibility for the decisions they take
* ensure pay and bonuses reward people for long term value and not short term risk taking.

A BBC World Service survey of 29,000 people has found broad support for reform of the international economic system ahead of the London Summit. More than 70% of people in 29 countries think major changes are needed in the way the global economy is run.

Doug Miller, the chairman of polling firm GlobeScan Chairman said: 'The poll reveals a global mandate for bold action at this week's G20 leaders summit.'

Brown set out his five tests for the Summit outcome as: restore growth; clean up the banking system; kick-start global trade; help emerging economies; and a low-carbon recovery.

He was speaking as two global business organisations called on world leaders to place low-carbon growth strategies at the heart of economic stimulus measures.

The World Economic Forum unveiled a report produced by a taskforce of 52 companies and 32 expert organisations that set out practical projects and policy proposals to stimulate low-carbon growth.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, which was part of the task force, said: 'The G20 can signal their determination to transform the current economic crisis into an opportunity by committing a serious part of their multi-trillion dollar stimulus packages to low-carbon investments.'

Meanwhile the World Business Council for Sustainable Development urged leaders to identify specific projects and ideas that will 'both create jobs in the short-run and catalyse the longer-term shift to a low-carbon global economy'.

Meanwhile British religious leaders issued a joint communiqué urging the G20 not to forget their commitments to the world's poorest people. The Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster, the heads of the Anglican and Catholic churches in the UK respectively, and the Chief Rabbi called on political leaders to consider the 'moral issues' at the root of the current financial crisis.

'Even in these difficult times we strongly urge the leaders of the G20 to hold fast to the commitments they have made to the world's poorest people,' they said.

World leaders have started to gather in London ahead of the Summit. Prime Minister Rudd and Felipe Calderon, the Mexican President, are here and President Barack Obama arrived on 31 March.

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, played down suggestions of transatlantic split over how to deal with economic crisis, saying that the US and EU were 'closer than ever'.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister of Spain, which has been invited by the G20 to joint the Summit, said in a webcast for this website: 'The G20 Summit must represent a new stage in the international community's efforts to overcome the financial and economic crises.'

Pedro Solbes, the Spanish finance minister, used a webcast with this website to call on leaders to build a robust institutional framework. 'The key challenge of the G20 is to link the short-term response to the crisis with the task of fundamental reform,' he said.

By G20 Official Site