G7 Summit: Announcing the donation of 1,000 million vaccines and other keys to the meeting

The planet’s trajectory after the Covid-19 crisis focused on the debate held this weekend in the UK by leaders of the Group of Seven, which brings together the world’s so-called “most advanced” economies.

The G7 consists of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. India, South Africa, South Korea and the European Union were also invited to the summit.

The Group of Seven has pledged to meet since Friday at a resort in Cornwall, southwest England to give 1.000 million vaccinesAnd the Preventing future epidemicsAnd the Reduce your carbon footprint s Confronting China’s influence in the world Through an ambitious financing plan for the least developed countries.

These and other agreements were published Sunday in a 25-page document.

Despite these commitments, the summit was not without criticism and doubts.

Especially since a billion vaccines do not seem to be enough to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic and because many details about the new climate proposals are still unknown.

This Sunday, after completing the summit in Cornwall, the G7 leaders announced a donation of 1 billion vaccines against Covid-19 for the next year.

WHO estimates 11 billion vaccines are needed to beat the virus, say critics This G7 compact is not enough.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) welcomed the announcement, but called for clarification of the plan and deadlines on when the doses will be available, as well as a “rapid acceleration of combined doses in the next three months”.

Measures to prevent future epidemics have also been agreed, such as Shorten development time to less than 100 days and But licensejust to new vaccinesfuture disease therapies and diagnosis, as well as enhanced global surveillance and genetic sequencing capabilities.

Among the agreements reached this weekend, a special plan was announced to support low- and middle-income countries and help them build better infrastructure.

United States President Joe Biden announced that this plan, known as Rebuilding a better world (B3W), it will be an alternative to the new Silk Road strategy that China has been implementing for several years.

Under this initiative, the Asian giant has financed trains, roads and ports in many countries.

But Critics, especially the United States, consider China to be practicing “debt diplomacy” To impose large loans on some of these states.

The G7 announced that its financial aid plan would present a coalition “driven by values ​​and high standards of transparency”.

However, Details of how to finance this project they were clarify a little.

Analysis by Jon Sobel, BBC North America editor

The Americans saw the G7 meeting last Saturday as a way to challenge China’s growing influence in the world.

Western democracies must confront Beijing’s new Silk Road, which has earmarked billions of dollars for developing countries.

Senior officials in this administration want to show that Western values ​​can prevail.

They argue that Chinese investment is overpriced and that’s what’s going on Forced labor of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang is morally outrageous and economically unacceptable. Because it prevents fair competition.

Joe Biden will insist that global supply chains should be free of these types of jobs. US officials say it’s not just about confronting China, it’s about preserving a potential alternative for the world.

However, the Biden administration has not been very accurate about how much and for how long the West will contribute to this global infrastructure.

What is clear is the renewed determination among Western powers that they need to act now to counter the growing and rising power of China.

The leaders committed themselves to the “green revolution” that It will limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

They also promised to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, halve emissions by 2030, and preserve or protect at least 30% of our land and oceans by 2030.

The goal is to achieve the phase-out of coal plants, unless they have the technology to capture carbon emissions.

Coal is the fuel for prolonged use dirtiest in the world Environmentalists see ending its use as an important step, but they also want assurances that rich countries will keep their past promises to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

The G7 will end financing for the new generation of coal and help the energy transition in developing countries.

“We reaffirm the collective goal of developed countries to mobilize $100 billion annually from public and private sources by 2025,” the group said.

Leaders of the seven major industrialized countries stableSiran Plans to reduce emissions from agriculture, transportation, steel and cement manufacturing.

Some environmental groups said the promises lacked specifics.

In 2009, rich countries already agreed to contribute $100 billion annually to climate finance for the poorest countries by 2020. But the target has not been met, in part due to the Covid pandemic.

While the G7 agreed to increase contributions to the goal, ActionAid’s Teresa Anderson said the “G7 reaffirmed the previous goal of $100,000 per year.” It does not come close to addressing the urgency and scale of the crisis“.

Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister and summit host, also highlighted the G7’s commitment to trying to do just that 40 million girls around the world go to school.

At a news conference on Sunday, Johnson announced that leaders had agreed to increase support for the Global Partnership for Education.

“Educating all children, especially girls, is one of the easiest ways to lift countries out of poverty and help them recover from the coronavirus crisis,” the British president said.

This initiative has been added to the document that contains what was adopted at the Cornwall Summit.

last week, The G7 also agreed on a minimum tax for multinational corporations To combat tax evasion and make companies pay in the countries in which they do business, regardless of where their subsidiaries are located.

With this, the group is expected to help in eroding the economic gap left by the pandemic.

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