G7 || A Small Group Makes Decisions For The Whole World?

After the focus of the G7 summit on a counterweight to the growing influence of China, the People's Republic criticized the participating countries. "The days when global decisions were made by a small group of countries are long gone," said a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London. All states, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are the same. "World political affairs should be settled through consultations of all countries."

According to a draft of the summit's final declaration, the G7 countries agreed on a tougher course with regard to China. They want to act against Chinese trade policy, human rights problems such as the internment of Uyghurs in re-education camps and the dismantling of freedoms in Hong Kong.

It is the first time that criticism of the country is so clearly formulated in a final G7 document. In dealing with the second largest economy, the G7 states want to "agree on a collective approach to contest policies and practices that are contrary to the market and undermine the fair and transparent flow of the global economy," says the draft text.

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At the same time, the heads of state and government have decided on a global initiative for infrastructure projects in poorer countries, which is intended to counterbalance China's New Silk Road. The infrastructure plan for poorer and emerging countries was approved on the initiative of US President Joe Biden . The aim is to offer poorer countries "value-oriented, high-quality and transparent" partnerships, announced the White House.

At the same time, the G7 emphasize their interest in cooperation with China on global challenges such as climate protection and the preservation of biodiversity - the dominant topics on the last day of the meeting on this Sunday. Among other things, the G7 countries agreed to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 and promised poorer countries billions for climate protection projects.

The G7 countries are still not making their fair contribution

However, climate activists rated the plans as disappointing. Without timelines, these are just empty promises 

The G7 heads of state and government are still not translating their words into action Investments in coal should end immediately

The countries would also have to keep the promise made earlier and this time only reaffirmed to want to make 100 billion US dollars available to developing countries annually. This should enable poorer countries to expand their climate protection and make themselves more resistant to effects such as extreme weather conditions. According to Oxfam, climate aid has so far only reached 39 billion US dollars.

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Jan Kowalzig from Oxfam said that the commitment to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 is "not a new announcement", but only a confirmation of the current goals under the Paris climate agreement. "The G7 countries are still not making their fair contribution to global climate protection." 

According to the organization Tearfund, the G7 countries have invested more in areas that use fossil fuels than in clean energy sources since the beginning of the corona pandemic. As early as Saturday, environmental activists called for doing more to protect the climate and species. Around 2,000 Extinction Rebellion activists took part in a protest march in the port city of Falmouth.

Another focus of the G7 deliberations was the fight against the corona pandemic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the planned adoption of the so-called health pact on Saturday as a "historic moment". "With this agreement, the most important democracies in the world undertake to prevent a global pandemic from ever recurring," said the summit host.

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Meanwhile, the aid organization Oxfam accused the G7 countries of inadequate action in the fight against the pandemic. It is to be welcomed that the G7 wanted to counter future pandemics more quickly, "but the lack of urgent measures to end the current crisis is unforgivable," said Oxfam representative Anna Marriott. The expected donation of one billion vaccine doses from the G7 countries came too late.

The states had announced that they would distribute one billion vaccine doses to poorer countries this year and 2.3 billion by the end of 2022. Development organizations recently described the announcement as a "diversionary maneuver" and a "game of confusion with numbers".

Eleven billion vaccine doses needed

"That sounds better than it is," said Fiona Uellendahl from the children's charity World Vision. It is nowhere near enough. "The G7 are throwing a smoke candle." They wanted to distract from the fact that they were against releasing the patent protection. "A global plan to fight the pandemic looks different." In the long term, investments must be made in research and production in poorer countries.

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"The fact that Chancellor Angela Merkel is still blocking the suspension of patent protection is incomprehensible and outrageous," said Jörn Kalinski from Oxfam. Vaccine production must be built up in all regions of the world in order to eliminate the structural causes of the unjust distribution. "This requires the suspension of patent protection, the transfer of technology and know-how and investments in production capacity," said Kalinski. The WHO estimates the global need at eleven billion vaccine doses.

"People in poor countries must not depend on the goodwill of politicians and for-profit pharmaceutical companies." Although the development of life-saving vaccines was supported with taxpayers' money, the Chancellor treated the vaccines as the private property of a few companies.

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