Boris Johnson urges world leaders to work together so the whole planet is vaccinated

Boris Johnson has urged world leaders to work together so the whole planet is vaccinated.

Boris Johnson urged the G7 world leaders to work together to ensure everyone on earth is vaccinated

Addressing world leaders from Downing Street including US president Joe Biden at today’s G7 meeting, Mr Johnson urged other developed nations to join the effort to increase the global vaccine supply.

He said: “Science is finally getting the upper hand on Covid which is a great, great thing and long overdue.

“But there is no point in us vaccinating our individual populations – we’ve got to make sure the whole world is vaccinated because this is a global pandemic and it’s no use one country being far ahead of another, we’ve got to move together.

“So one of the things that I know that colleagues will be wanting to do is to ensure that we distribute vaccines at cost around the world – make sure everybody gets the vaccines that they need so that the whole world can come through this pandemic together.

“I think that this is the right moment for us all to focus on the other great natural challenge about which we’ve been warned time and time and time again.

“We can’t ignore it – the warnings have been even clearer than they were for Covid – and that is the problem of climate change, and that’s why we’re going to be working very hard to get some great things done at G7 on our plans for the Cop26 summit that we are holding along with our Italian friends in Glasgow in November.

“It’s great, by the way, that Joe (Biden) has brought the United States back into the Paris Climate Change Accords – a great step forward.”

The meeting also included the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the European Commission and European Council.

Boris Johnson also urged the G7 leaders to work together on “building back better” from the pandemic, joking he had “nicked” the slogan from “somewhere else.”

Having first used the phrase, the US president could be seen laughing on the video call.

In a joint statement after the meeting, the world leaders vowed to “intensify cooperation” on the health response to the crisis.

They said: “We, the leaders of the Group of Seven, met today and resolved to work together to beat COVID-19 and build back better.

"Drawing on our strengths and values as democratic, open economies and societies, we will work together and with others to make 2021 a turning point for multilateralism and to shape a recovery that promotes the health and prosperity of our people and planet.

“We will work with the WHO, G20 and others, especially through the Global Health Summit in Rome, to bolster global health and health security architecture for pandemic preparedness, including through health financing and rapid response mechanisms, by strengthening the ‘One Health’ approach and Universal Health Coverage, and exploring the potential value of a global health treaty.

“As Leaders, we will consult with each other on collective approaches to address non-market oriented policies and practices, and we will cooperate with others to address important global issues that impact all countries.”

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