DECISIONS MADE at the G20 summit in St Andrews this weekend will have a direct impact on the lives of billions of people across the globe, the Chancellor said yesterday.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier at the Treasury, Alistair Darling said what is at stake is nothing less than the future prosperity of the world’s nations and millions of jobs.

And on the other key question of climate change, the Chancellor accused some countries of trying to backslide from their commitment to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Later today finance ministers from the world’s 20 richest nations will arrive in Fife to tackle the biggest issue facing the planet.

Together they represent around 90% of the world’s wealth, 80% of world trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population.

The two big issues on the agenda are are making progress on tackling climate change and reaching an agreement on how to generate growth in the future.

Other issues like tax havens and banking regulations will also be discussed over a working dinner tonight and sessions before the final communique tomorrow.

But to ordinary people why does it matter these powerful men and women are locked away for two days in a beautiful town on the coast of Fife?

“If you want the answer in one word, it’s jobs,” said Mr Darling.

“If you think about it, a year ago we had the banking system all over the world on the brink of collapse, economies of the world were plummeting into the abyss, unemployment had started to rise everywhere.

“There was a real fear that we were heading for a depression the like of which we hadn’t seen since the 1930s.

“What happened this time, which didn’t happen in the 1930s, was that the biggest countries and the biggest economies—which is what the G20 is— sat down and said, ‘Look this doesn’t have to happen.’

“If we take action, if we out money into our economies it will make a difference.”

The Chancellor says the evidence of that concerted emergency action is there for all to see with Germany, France, Japan, and America are all coming out of recession.

The UK, he predicts, will follow shortly, towards the end of the year.

“Now, none of that would have happened with one country doing things on their own,” said Mr Darling.

“It did happen because all these countries did these things together.

“If you think about it, if you had said to people two years ago G20, they would have said—what is that?

“But it actually has made a difference. There are times in the world when you face a crisis where you need to work with counties in Europe, you need to work with countries in the rest of the world.

“So this weekend, why does it matter?

“Because as we are coming to a stage where we are far more confident than we were even a year ago, the next challenge is how do you avoid the next 10 years of low growth, therefore fewer jobs.

“Scotland depends upon the world growing because a lot of what Scotland makes it sells to the world. Whether it is banking services, computer games, engineering—we need the outside world.

“That’s why St Andrews matters, because what St Andrews is about is laying the foundations, not for the next year but for 10 or 20 years.

“So does it matter? Yes it does, and in a way not thought possible a few years ago.”

The Chancellor said it is a mistake to see this summit as yet another meeting of talking heads.

“I can understand why people say how can 20 people sitting in a hotel in St Andrews make a difference to the world, but it has happened before and will happen again,” he said.

“This is not just a routine meeting.”

He said although a lot of the groundwork for the G20 is done in advance and is part of daily inter-governmental business, meeting face to face is crucial.

“Remember this year we have met in London, we have met in Pittsburgh—we talk to each other all the time.

“A lot of the groundbreaking work is done before you arrive but what I have found is that the real progress starts when we meet for dinner on the Friday night and then over the Saturday.

“A lot of it is, bluntly, bumping into each other in hotel corridors and saying, ‘Look, this is what we want to do, can we reach a deal’.

“Like so many other things when you lock someone in a hotel and say you are not going to leave until you get a result.”