Month: June 2021

The Group of Seven (G7), comprising the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States (US), met on Saturday to discuss priority areas, amid a pandemic that has ravaged economies and pushed healthcare to an edge across the world.

Of all, the health crisis owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic dominated the G7 summit as Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a “One Earth, One Health” approach,  Canadian PM Justin Trudeau emphasized the need to build a consensus on “how to work with China” and the G7 announced its global Covid vaccine plan.

During the G7 summit, the “Carbis Bay Declaration” was also adopted which will see the world’s leading democracies commit to a series of measures that are designed to quash future pandemics within the crucial period of the first 100 days.

But some campaigners did not invite the G7 global vaccine plan to vaccinate the poorer countries. They say it “lacked” ambition, was “too slow” and showed the G7 leaders were not yet on top of tackling the worst public health crisis.

2)  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has extended support to India and South Africa’s initiative at the WTO to waive intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines and products, though he cautioned that “technology transfer” must be backed up by “technical support”.

3)  The US and Australia have backed the initiative by India and South Africa at the WTO, seen as a breakthrough in the global fight against the deadly pandemic, raising hopes of expanding the supply of vaccines at affordable rates for developing/underdeveloped nations.

4) Britain will set up a new animal vaccine development centre that will aim to stop viruses jumping into the human population, to prevent future pandemics, as part of a landmark global health declaration to be agreed by G7 world leaders at Carbis Bay in Cornwall on Saturday. The move comes amid growing demand for a more thorough investigation into the origin of the virus that causes Covid-19 infections. 

5) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit’s host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year.

6)  The head of the World Health Organisation has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says “we need more, and we need them faster.”

7)  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led a G7 discussion of China on Saturday and called on leaders to come up with a unified approach to the challenges posed by the People’s Republic, a source told Reuters. G7 leaders reached broad alignment on building a concerted approach to China.

8) Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the G7 summit. Some protesters paddled out to sea, while others sunbathed on the beach wearing masks of leaders’ faces.

9) Meanwhile, G7 leaders will commit on Sunday to increasing their climate finance contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 billion a year to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming.