The issue of global warming is just one problem still looming over delegates [AFP]

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As far as first days go - it couldn't really have been much worse. The G8 has managed to anger a number of groups in the first few hours of its meeting.

All the pre-summit arguments about the suitability of L'Aquila as a venue for the event are now irrelevant.  It's here and it's happening. But still locals are angry.

Remember the event was switched here from Sardinia after April's deadly earthquake.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, ordered the switch to attract investment and highlight the problems of those hit by the disaster.

Yet many locals feel the G8 has diverted time, resources and money from helping them. They are so angry they unveiled a giant banner on a hill overlooking the summit centre.

When the summit got under way, a statement on climate change appeared.

Here the G8 committed itself to ensuring global temperatures do not rise more than 2C in the future.

To be fair, it's the first time the US, Japan and Russia have tied themselves to the figure. And there was a commitment to really tackle climate change at the conference planned on the topic in Copenhagen in December.

'Not enough'

For environmentalists though, it isn't enough.

Greenpeace activists have taken over four coal-fired power stations across Italy to push their message and in the US they went to the national monument at Mount Rushmore, the place where the presidents' faces are carved in stone, and unravelled a picture of Obama, urging him to take the lead on this issue.

It was a point backed up by Ananth Guruswami, Greenpeace's global programme director, who told me: "The G8 have to take leadership on this. They had the chance to set a roadmap to Denmark and they failed.

"Trying to keep temperatures to a two degree rise is nothing new. The science tells us that. We needed something bold and we were left disappointed."

Aid disappointment

And to complete a day of disappointment charities have been critical of the G8's failure to meet its own targets on Aid and development assistance to Africa.

Adrian Lovett of Save the Children used the tone of many: "Four hundred thousand children could die because of this economic crisis and that's something the G8 simply can't ignore.

"But there is also a long-term self-interest for the G8, that if they don't invest in Africa and the poorest countries in the world, then their own security and their own prosperity is going to be at risk."

Berlusconi did take time out from talking to give Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Obama a tour of part of the earthquake scene.

They spoke to survivors and to rescuers. It will raise awareness of the plight of those still living with the consequences of that terrifying 35 seconds.

The Italian premier will be hoping that at the end of the G8, that isn't his only success.