Everything you need to know about the G7 summit

World leaders met in Cornwall to discuss a variety of global issues, including climate change and the pandemic. Here are all the main talking points from this year’s G7 summit.

Last weekend saw many world leaders – including Joe Biden and Boris Johnson – gather at Carbis Bay in the UK for the 47^th G7 summit.

This annual event is used by the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies to discuss a whole matter of humanitarian problems and environmental issues. It first started in 1970 and includes the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, and Italy.

Unsurprisingly, this year’s conversations were dominated by the pandemic, vaccines, and global healthcare distribution. The environment remained an important talking point, however, especially as demonstrations and protests were spotted all around Cornwall during the summit.

In case you missed it, here are the main takeaways from this year’s G7 summit  and what might happen for the world moving forward. Let’s hope Boris doesn’t fly in on a jet next time, mind.

The COVID-19 response and vaccine distributions 

One key talking point this year was how to avoid similar disruptive pandemic situations in the future. Boris Johnson emphasised the need for a global protocol response that is more effective and quicker than last year’s handling of COVID-19.

In addition, the G7 countries vowed to distribute 1 billion vaccines to poorer nations as part of an effort to combat vaccine nationalism.

Interestingly, the UK has been one of the worst hoarders of vaccines, leaving those more at risk in countries like India without adequate medical care to cope. Johnson said the goal was to ‘vaccinate the world’ by the end of 2022 however, despite his government’s track record.

US president Joe Biden encouraged others to extend loans to developing nations in order to help the recovery process across the world, and to limit China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, a long-term economic plan to boost its influence in over 70 countries.