ROME, OCTOBER 29 – A global vaccination plan to reach everyone; the extension into next year of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative to make it available to all highly indebted vulnerable and middle-income countries that request it; ambition on climate finance including making good on the commitment to provide $100 billion each year to developing countries: this is the threefold appeal of the Un Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who has arrived in Rome for the G20 Summit of leading industrialized nations convened by the Italian rotating Presidency.
“Global coordinated action has taken a backseat to vaccine hoarding and vaccine nationalism. People in the richest countries are getting third doses of vaccine, while only 5 per cent of Africans are fully vaccinated”, said Guterres, urging G20 Countries to fully support the World Health Organization new Global Vaccination Strategy with an aim of getting vaccines into the arms of 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of this year — and 70 per cent by mid-2022. The Secretary General then met the Italian Premier Mario Draghi, the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and the President of the House of Parliament Roberto Fico. He thanked them for Italy’s critical leadership in strengthening multilateral cooperation on climate and sustainable development.
From Rome, Guterres will then travel to Glasgow for the COP26: There is a “serious risk” that the UN climate conference “will not deliver”, the UN chief told journalists on Friday in Rome, just ahead of the G20 Summit. “We need greater ambition on mitigation to get us on a credible pathway to 1.5 degree Celsius — a target that science tells us is the only sustainable future for our world”, he said today: “This requires concrete action now to reduce global emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and G20 countries have a particular responsibility to keep the 1.5 degree goal alive, as they represent around 80 per cent of emissions”. (@OnuItalia)
