G7 summit: Will our leaders deliver on their promise?

In case you might have missed it, the 47th G7 summit took place this week in Cornwall UK. This annual conference reunites the 7 leading democracies including: the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Germany, France and Italy to seek cooperation on global issues. This year’s most pressing topics included the ongoing pandemic and its subsequent effect on our economies and the ever more threatening climate crisis. The conference was hosted by UK prime minister Boris Johnson and here are the results. They have agreed to:

· Donate 1 billion doses of vaccine to help MEDs combat against the economic and public-health crisis.

· Establish a sanitary protocol to prevent potential pandemics from affecting us in the future

· Continue cutting carbon emissions and support the transition to cleaner sources of energy in developing countries

· Prioritize girl’s education as a means to help them escape structural poverty

On the not so bright side, many questioned the significance of this G7 claiming that it was solely a matter of diplomacy as the initiatives proposed were only half measures and the key issues were ignored. For instance, Oxfam has stated that the summit would “live on infamy” accusing the G7 of donating vaccines as an accounting ploy. Furthermore, beneath all the smiles and friendly handshakes, it seems that the tensions of the Brexit have prevailed as the leaders failed to find a compromise for the Irish protocol.

For now, we can hope that our leaders will deliver on their ambitious promises but only time will tell whether the 47th G7 will be remembered for its pivotal significance or unforgivable triviality.

Works cited:

‌ Heffer, Greg. “G7 Summit: Sir David Attenborough Presses Leaders to Show the ‘Global Will’ to Tackle Climate Change.” Sky News, Sky, 12 June 2021, news.sky.com/story/g7-summit-attenborough-to-tell-g7-leaders-they-face-biggest-climate-change-decisions-in-human-history-12331232.

‌ Sparrow, Andrew, and Steven Morris. “G7: Boris Johnson Plays down Seriousness of Rift with EU on Brexit – as It Happened.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 13 June 2021, www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2021/jun/13/g7-live-david-attenborough-climate-crisis-latest-updates?page=with:block-60c624638f08232f71fc6655#block-60c624638f08232f71fc6655.

IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub. “Event: G7 Leaders’ Summit 2021 | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD.” Iisd.org, 2021, sdg.iisd.org/events/g7-leaders-summit-2021/.

Kuenssberg, Laura. “G7 Summit: Has This Been a Meeting That Mattered?” BBC News, BBC News, 13 June 2021, www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57461693.