The G20 summit, which concluded yesterday, has adopted Rome Declaration. The member countries have agreed on mutual recognition of vaccines, strengthening of WHO to give faster approvals to vaccines and suspending debt servicing for developing countries till December 2021.
Briefing media in Rome, Union Minister and India’s G20 Sherpa Piyush Goyal said, G20 Rome has delivered a strong message of recovery from the pandemic, in terms of economy, health, employment, education, tourism and most importantly climate action. He said, the leaders adopted the Rome Declaration and this communique gives a strong message under the health section where we have agreed that COVID-19 immunisation is a global public good. He said, we have agreed to strengthen the WHO to enable it to proceed with the approval of Covid vaccines. Mr Goyal said, on agriculture, the livelihood of the small and marginal farmers were the focus of our discussion. He said, G20 has identified sustainable and responsible consumption and production along with the provision of finance and technology as critical enablers to achieving climate goals. The Sherpa said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra of sustainable lifestyles finds resonance in the Rome declaration on sustainable consumption and responsible production patterns in line with SDG 12. He said, a lot of the agenda of developing countries in which India has been taking a leadership role has been brought into the text of the Rome Declaration. Mr Goyal said, clean energy and innovation will play an important role in the years to come. he said, energy security and stability of energy markets have also been recognised by the G20 leaders.
On the last day of the G20 Summit yesterday, the global leaders deliberated upon subjects of Climate change, environment and sustainable development. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other world leaders are participating in this summit. Yesterday, the summit had a session on the global economy and global health where G-20 leaders expressed their views on the issues. In his intervention, Prime Minister Modi highlighted India’s contribution to the fight against COVID-19 and spoke about New Delhi’s vision of ‘One Earth, One Health’ saying this vision can become a great strength for the world to deal with any such crisis in the future. Mr. Modi conveyed that India is ready to produce over five billion vaccine doses by the end of next year.