G7 leaders urged to show solidarity on climate change and COVID-19 at summit

(Reuters, 7 Jun 2021) As developing countries grapple with more extreme weather and the pandemic, rich nations face growing calls to deliver on promises of climate finance and vaccine support.

Pressure is growing on leaders of the G7 club of rich nations to provide more funding to deal with climate change and surplus COVID-19 vaccines for developing countries as an act of global solidarity when they meet this coming weekend in Britain.

Green groups, development agencies and international policy experts said those gestures would be effective in building trust ahead of November's COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, seen as crucial to putting the 2015 Paris climate accord into practice.

But persuading G7 leaders to dig deeper has been further complicated by Britain's decision to temporarily cut its overseas aid budget due to COVID-19 economic woes, even while doubling its climate finance in the next five years.

Pete Betts, a former EU lead climate negotiator, said the UK aid decision had caused disappointment in the developing world and prompted senior officials in other rich countries to question why they should raise their climate finance pledges.

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Reuters, 7 Jun 2021: G7 leaders urged to show solidarity on climate change and COVID-19 at summit