What is G7?

G7 is a Group of the 7 most advanced economies as per the International Monetary Fund. They are Canada, USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

47^th G7 Summit 2021

• The 47th G7 Summit is scheduled to be held between June 11 and 13, 2021 in the United Kingdom.
• It is the first physical G7 summit to be held in two years and will take place in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, the UK.
• The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been invited to be a part of the Summit.
• The Objective of the 47th G7 Summit is to unite leading democracies to help the world build back better from the coronavirus and create a greener, more prosperous future. It shall aim at:

1. Leading the global recovery from the Novel Coronavirus while strengthening resilience against future pandemics.
2. Promoting future prosperity by championing free and fair trade.
3. Tackling climate change and preserving the planet’s biodiversity.
4. Championing globally shared values.

Outcomes of the 47^th G7 Summit

Outcomes of G7 Summit

• G7 leaders agreed on Sunday to raise their contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 billion a year to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming, calling on other developed countries to join the effort. But campaigners said firm cash promises were missing.
• Alongside plans billed as helping speed infrastructure funding in developing countries and a shift to renewable and sustainable technology, the world’s seven largest advanced economies again pledged to meet the climate finance target.
• But climate groups said the promise made in the summit’s final communique lacked detail, most importantly a figure for the increases.
• Germany said it would boost its contribution by 2 billion to 6 billion euros ($7.26 billion) a year by 2025 at the latest.
• In the communique, the seven nations — the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — reaffirmed their commitment to “jointly mobilise $100 billion per year from public and private sources, through to 2025”.
• “Towards this end, we commit to each increase and improve our overall international public climate finance contributions for this period and call on other developed countries to join and enhance their contributions to this effort.”
• There was a clear push by leaders at the G7 summit in southwestern England to try to counter China’s increasing influence in the world, particularly among developing nations.
• The leaders signalled their desire to build a rival to Beijing’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative but the details were few and far between.
• G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions, and we were clear this weekend that action has to start with us.
• “And while it’s fantastic that every one of the G7 countries has pledged to wipe out our contributions to climate change, we need to make sure we’re achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time.”
• Developed countries agreed at the UN in 2009 to together contribute $100 billion each year by 2020 in climate finance to poorer countries, many of whom are grappling with rising seas, storms and droughts made worse by climate change. That target was not met, derailed in part by the pandemic that also forced Britain to postpone the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) until later this year.
• The G7 also said 2021 should be a “turning point for our planet” and to accelerate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep the 1.5 Celsius global warming threshold within reach.

Outcomes of the 47^th G7 Summit: Indian perspective

• India is a “natural ally” to work with the world’s richest G7 countries to fight against threats of authoritarianism, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a special outreach session for guest countries on “Open Societies and Open Economies” at the G7 summit that ended in Corbis Bay, U.K.
• Marking out the need for a “free, open and inclusive” Indo-Pacific, officials also said the government will study U.S. President Joseph Biden’s proposal for a “Build Back Better World” (B3W) initiative, seen as a counter to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, that was endorsed by the G7, keeping in mind the principles of “transparency and inclusion”.
• However, in a departure from the main 25-page G7 communique, which was issued by U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan, and contained negative references to China on the issue of its aggression in the East and South China Sea, and human rights issues in Xinjiang, MEA officials said Chinese aggression “was not raised” at the outreach meetings with guest countries Australia, South Korea and South Africa, and that there are “other forums” where it is being discussed.
• The communique also made a strong call for a “timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study including, as recommended by the experts’ report, in China,” that India had also called for in a statement during the World Health Assembly last month.
• Mr. Modi also called on “tech companies and social media platforms” to ensure a “safe cyber environment” for all, a statement significant given the government’s recent regulatory issues with Facebook, Twitter and other tech companies.