G20 Focuses on Vaccines, Health, Economy and Climate During Rome Summit

President Biden joins G20 heads of state in Rome to discuss COVID response, vaccines, debt, economic crisis and climate policies. This is the first in-person meeting of the leaders since before the onset of the pandemic.

“Decisions by the G20 on the pandemic will shape global health, economic and climate policies for years to come,” shared Eric LeCompte, a United Nations finance expert who heads the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. “The world is waiting for the G20 to provide a plan on getting 70 percent of the globe vaccinated next year."

Financing of vaccines and prevention of future global health crises will be a focus of the G20 meetings.

Ahead of the G20 summit, Jubilee USA Network organized nearly 300 religious groups, labor unions and anti-poverty, environmental and human rights organizations to write a letter to press President Biden, the Italian G20 chair and head of the IMF to address poverty and climate policies in pandemic response.

G20 leaders travel to Glasgow after the Rome meetings for a UN-convened summit on climate. 

"What the G20 decides this weekend on climate policies will impact decisions at the upcoming climate conference," said LeCompte. "Responding to the pandemic means that developing countries have even less capacity to address climate change."

Jubilee USA Network joined LATINDADD to release a report and research database ahead of the G20 summit on vulnerabilities that affected developing countries during pandemic. One of those vulnerabilities the two groups focused on was climate change.

"Our research found that too many developing countries are left out of G20 pandemic response processes because they are ranked as middle-income developing economies," stated LeCompte. "World leaders can use our research as a tool to ensure adequate pandemic response for all countries struggling with the coronavirus health and economic crises."

Read Jubilee USA's COVID-19 White House, IMF, G20 Letter with 286 supporting groups here. 

Read the joint US Conference of Catholic Bishops/Jubilee USA Network Letter to President Biden here. 

Explore the interactive Jubilee USA Network and LATINDADD Atlas of Vulnerability: Developing Countries and the Pandemic here.

Read highlighted findings from the Atlas of Vulnerability here.

Read the briefing paper "Atlas of Vulnerability: The Pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean" here.