Statement from Global Citizen re: the 2024 G7 Leaders’ Statement

“The G7 summit was not worth the trip. The G7 leaders could have stayed at home. No new commitments were made and the leaders reiterated what had already been agreed weeks ago by the ministers, well below what actually is needed. More importantly, the leaders repackaged old commitments in an opaque way, at a  time when more than half of the G7 are cutting their aid budgets.

The G7 leaders demonstrated timid leadership on climate, agreeing to a coal phase out in the first half of the 2030s and to incorporate plans to transition away from fossil fuels in their NDCs. They also reiterated the need to agree on a new, post-2025 climate financing goal, with them as leading contributors. However all of this had already been agreed by their ministers at  the end of April. At a time when the world needed bold leadership from them, the leaders’ meeting added no value . We are only 5 months away from the next COP, labeled Finance COP, and the G7 only states the obvious, that as the biggest donor countries they need to continue to lead on climate finance. They did not commit to meeting their existing climate finance promises -  the full $100B (not just in 2022, but from 2020 through to 2025) and doubling adaptation finance by 2025.

Most worryingly the G7 refused to lead on IDA. IDA is the biggest provider of development finance for 75 countries, critical to fund adaptation, food security and the energy transition. While Meloni likes to consider herself a friend of Africa, the final communiqué of “her” G7 summit only includes a half sentence on IDA, without any commitment from the G7 to remain leading contributors or collectively increase their contribution to this fund, strongly supported by African leaders. The G7 represents two-thirds of the donor contribution to IDA; without them stepping up there is no successful replenishment.

The G7 brings together major shareholders of the global financial system. Just last year, they committed to explore the rechanneling of Special Drawing Rights through multilateral development banks (MDBs). But now that the IMF actually gave its green light, the G7 remains silent. This is disappointing as the African Development Bank stands ready to receive SDRs and leverage them four fold for the green transition and pandemic preparedness and countries like Japan and France have already expressed their support.

In 2009, this group pledged $20 billion through L’Aquila Food Security Initiative, with Italy as a champion. In comparison, the G7 Apulia Food Systems Initiative came with no cash. 15 years later, there is a real question of the added value of the G7 for the world.”

— Friederike Röder, Vice President at Global Citizen