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G-7 Summit Ends With "Action List"


Activists of the NGO ONE, wearing masks depicting G-7 leaders, protest the G-7 summit held in the nearby Bavarian alpine resort hotel Elmau Castle, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Image taken 6.24.2022
Activists of the NGO ONE, wearing masks depicting G-7 leaders, protest the G-7 summit held in the nearby Bavarian alpine resort hotel Elmau Castle, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Image taken 6.24.2022

The Group of Seven top economic powers ended their summit Tuesday in the Bavarian Alps with an "action list" of items for the member nations to address.

The world's top industrialised nations wrapped up a three-day summit dominated by talks on how they can bolster Ukraine in repelling Russia's invasion while minimising the international fallout.

Here are the main plans drawn up by the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States in tackling the myriad of crises facing the globe:

Regarding Russia's attack upon Ukraine, the G-7 nations vowed to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for "as long as it takes".

Financial aid for Kyiv reaches $29.5 billion, as the United States separately said it was planning to send Ukraine sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to defend against Russian attacks.

To put the squeeze on Russia, they plan to work towards a price cap for Russian oil and impose an import ban from gold from Vladimir Putin's country.

The G7 pledged an additional $4.5 billion to ease the global food shortage crisis. That brings the total joint commitment to $14 billion for the year.

They also called on countries and companies with significant food stockpiles to help ease a hunger crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement, they also urged "all countries to avoid excessive stockpiling of food which can lead to further price increases."

G7 leaders called out China's "non-transparent and market-distorting" international trade practices.

They signalled that they would seek to extricate themselves from reliance on China, saying that they will "foster diversification and resilience to economic coercion, and to reduce strategic dependencies".

The leaders also voiced concern about human rights violations in China, urging Beijing to respect fundamental freedoms and respect rights in Hong Kong.

The G7 underlined the "increased urgency to act" to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by around 43 percent by 2030 relative to the 2019 level.

It committed to a "highly decarbonized road sector by 2030".

The group agreed to set up a "Climate Club" of willing countries to coordinate and speed up efforts to tackle global warming.

As for energy, the G7 committed to ending new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2021.

The term "unabated" refers to projects that do not employ techniques to offset some of the pollution caused by carbon dioxide emissions.

With the scramble for alternative energy sources as Western allies shun Russian fossil fuels, however, the G7 agreed that public investment can be made in the gas sector "as a temporary response."

Summits always produce communiques with promises for action: observers say they wait to see if the world's biggest economies make good on these.

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