As the G20 conference in Rome gets underway, the United Kingdom has committed to delivering up to 20 million additional doses of coronavirus vaccines to developing nations in an effort to fuel the global post-pandemic economic recovery.
This pledge comes after Britain committed itself earlier in the year at a G7 conference to deliver 100 million shots to developing nations as part of the G7’s goal to supply a total of one billion vaccinations.
Having already delivered 10 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, the U.K. will deliver a further 10 million vaccines in the coming weeks. In 2022, Britain will deliver 20 million more Oxford-AstraZeneca doses to the COVAX facility, along with all 20 million Janssen doses that were ordered by the government.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is hosting the G20 conference in order to discuss the uneven distribution of vaccines globally, with the objective of increasing supply to countries in need.
The global vaccination effort is only one of the two major issues being discussed at the G20 summit, the other being the effort to cut global emissions. This conference will be followed by the United Nations COP26 summit in Glasgow, which is aimed at discussing the climate crisis.
