G20 leaders have a choice to either take urgent action or continue what they are doing, Oxfam says
Oxfam, the confederation of 20 charitable organisations has called on world leaders to take urgent action on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), climate change, poverty and hunger, ahead of the G20 Summit in Rome.
Jörn Kalinski, Oxfam’s senior advisor, said G20 leaders had a choice. They could either take urgent action against COVID-19, hunger and climate change. Or they could continue doing what they had been doing, talking some of the talk but walking none of the walk, he added.
The statement from Oxfam said rich countries had originally promised in 2020 that any successful vaccine against COVID-19 would be “a global public good” and had pledged 1.8 billion doses to developing countries.
A year later, they had delivered just 261 million. Some 63 per cent of people in rich countries had been fully vaccinated. But this figure was just 1.8 per cent of people living in poorer parts of the world.
“In Rome, G20 leaders must put aside their differences and starting the process to share the rights and the technology to vaccines and scaling-up manufacturing around the world to ensure everyone has access to them,” Kalinski said.
Oxfam also urged leaders to pursue a more equitable economic recovery and help fight the scourge of growing hunger, around the world.
More than 40 million people have experienced extreme levels of hunger primarily due to economic shocks largely caused by the pandemic. Mass unemployment and severely disrupted food production have led to a 40 per cent surge in global food prices.
“Billionaire wealth has jumped from $8 trillion to $15 trillion in just two years while hundreds of millions of people now face crisis-levels of hunger and poverty,” Kalinski said.
Together, the G20 could make a dramatic difference, by showing political will and using its multilateral leadership to create the better future, he added.
Oxfam also called for G20 action to tackle the climate crisis, since the poorest people, with fewest resources and who had done the least to cause the problem, were being hardest hit.
“We still have time to reverse course and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. G20 leaders must use this summit to signal their collective commitment to tackle climate change before the CoP26 negotiations start in Glasgow next week,” Kalinski said.
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