Rome, Oct. 29, (dpa/GNA) – Aid groups called for vaccines against Covid-19 to be made more equitable in the run-up to the Group of 20 (G20) summit of large industrialized nations this weekend.
The development groups also demanded more climate protection and more aid for poor countries.
“The G20 group is meeting at a time when three crises demand decisive action. Pandemic consequences, climate crisis and growing inequality are a toxic mix that do not allow ‘business as usual’,” said Oxfam G20 coordinator Joern Kalinski in Rome on Friday.
“Bold decisions are needed – for vaccine justice, effective climate protection and livelihood security.”
The unequal distribution of vaccines has been widely criticized and aid groups reiterated their concerns.
“After 18 months of pandemic, the record is appalling,” said Friedrike Roeder of Global Citizen.
In rich countries, 70 per cent of people have been vaccinated and a third vaccination is being considered, while in poor countries not even 3 per cent have been vaccinated.
Others attributed the inequality to an absence of political will.
“Production is not the problem, but a lack of political will and the profit interests of the manufacturers,” Fiona Uellendahl of World Vision said.
“Wealthy countries have secured the lion’s share of vaccine doses and are defending the monopoly interests of pharmaceutical companies instead of doing everything they can to save human lives,” Kalinski said.
In terms of minimizing the impact of environmental change on people, Roeder said the G20 should agree on 2050 as a common goal to become carbon neutral, ahead of the COP26 world climate conference, which starts in Scotland on Sunday.
Three-quarters of global emissions come from G20 countries, he said, and called for 2045 to be set as a goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in the Paris climate accord.
GNA