Anti-poverty groups criticise rich countries over G7 tax deal
Frankfurt, GermanyReuters Anti-poverty campaigners on Monday criticised a deal reached by seven wealthy countries to impose a minimum tax on multinational companies, saying it would benefit rich nations at the expense of the poor. Finance Ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies agreed on Saturday to back the creation of a global minimum corporate […]
UK’s Johnson calls on G7 to vaccinate world by end of 2022
London, UKReuters British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday called for leaders of the Group of Seven rich nations to make a commitment to vaccinate the entire world against COVID-19 by the end of 2022 when they meet in Britain next week. Johnson will host the first in-person summit in almost two years of G7 […]
Digital divide: How to unmute climate voices in poorer nations
SONIA ELKS, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…
“Failure for humanity”: rich world aims to end vaccine inequities
Rome, ItalyReuters Rich nation leaders and big drugmakers promised on Friday to do more to bridge the startling divide in fighting COVID-19, with an increased flow of badly-needed vaccines to poorer regions. Lavishly-funded mass inoculation campaigns are helping many wealthy countries slash infections, but few shots have reached less developed nations where the virus still […]
COVAX allocates first tranche of 330 million vaccine doses to poor countries
Geneva, Switzerland/London, UKReuters The COVAX vaccine-sharing facility has allocated at least 330 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer countries and will aim to deliver these and many millions more in the first half of 2021, agencies leading the scheme said on Wednesday. Publishing an interim distribution plan, the COVAX Facility said distribution would cover […]
WHO vaccine scheme risks failure, leaving poor countries no COVID shots until 2024
Brussels, BelgiumReuters The global scheme to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a “very high” risk of failure, potentially leaving nations home to billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024, internal documents say. The World Health Organization’s COVAX program is the main global scheme to vaccinate people in […]
Climate fund for poor nations vows to drive green COVID recovery
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation The Green Climate Fund has promised developing nations it will ramp up efforts to help them tackle climate challenges as they strive to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, approving $US879 million in backing for 15 new projects around the world. At a four-day virtual board meeting ending late Friday, the fund […]
Better food for world’s poor could hike climate-changing emissions
Rome, ItalyThomson Reuters Foundation To feed their people a healthy diet, countries from Ethiopia to India may need to hike their climate-changing emissions – a shift only possible if richer nations simultaneously curb theirs, a United Nations flagship report on hunger said Monday. Increasing emissions to provide poor children, in particular, with more protein or […]
COVID-19 will push middle income countries into hunger, says Oxfam
Rome, ItalyThomson Reuters Foundation More people will die of hunger caused by the pandemic than of coronavirus this year, according to The Hunger Virus, a report from Oxfam. Poor countries like war-torn Yemen are at risk but the global aid charity also identified several middle-income countries as new epicentres of hunger where millions could be pushed to […]
Vulnerable nations say delayed summit should not mean delayed climate action
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation The UN climate summit has been delayed for a full year, but pandemic-preoccupied governments should not back away from the stronger climate action plans and increased funding they promised to deliver in 2020, officials and activists said. On Thursday evening, Britain – host of the COP26 conference in Glasgow – said […]