Leaders of the G7 pose for a group photo on overlooking the beach at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Friday, June 11, 2021. Leaders from left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Council President Charles Michel, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool) A woman walks her dogs as the incoming tide begins to wash away the heads of G7 leaders drawn in the sand by activists on the beach at Newquay, Cornwall, England, Thursday, June 10, 2021. G7 leaders and guests will meet in the the Cornish resort of Carbis Bay, St. Ives, starting Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Britain's Queen Elizabeth II speaks to US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden during a reception with the G7 leaders at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, Friday June 11, 2021, during the G7 summit. (Jack Hill/Pool via AP) President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron visit during a bilateral meeting at the G-7 summit, Saturday, June 12, 2021, in Carbis Bay, England. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden with first lady Jill Biden walk outside Carbis Bay Hotel, Carbis Bay, Cornwall, Britain, ahead of the G7 summit, Thursday June 10, 2021. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP) Activists wearing giant heads of the G7 leaders tussle over a giant COVID-19 vaccine syringe during an action of NGO's on Swanpool Beach in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, Friday, June 11, 2021. Leaders of the G7 begin their first of three days of meetings on Friday in Carbis Bay, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. Depicted from left to right, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) First lady Jill Biden turns around to show the word "love" on the back of her jacket as she speaks with reporters after visiting with Carrie Johnson, wife of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ahead of the G-7 summit, Thursday, June 10, 2021, in Carbis Bay, England. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with his wife Carrie during arrivals for the G7 meeting at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Leaders of the G7 gather for a second day of meetings on Saturday, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool) Activists march through the streets in during a demonstration around the meeting of the G7 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Leaders of the G7 gather for a second day of meetings on Saturday, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, perform a fly-past over Carbis Bay during the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Jon Super) The Red Arrows flight demonstration team performs an aerobatic display above Carbis Bay, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021, during the G-7 summit. The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP) Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga arrives for a working session at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, Saturday June 12, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP) France's President Emmanuel Macron walks to a working session at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, Saturday June 12, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP) Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for a working session at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, Saturday June 12, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of a bilateral meeting at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of a bilateral meeting at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie greet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, left, during arrivals for the G7 meeting in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Leaders of the G7 gathered for a second day of meetings on Saturday, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, ahead of their bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, southern England, Sunday June 13, 2021. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP) Workers on a platform set up flowers decoration with a map showing the United States in Beijing, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the world's largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan on Saturday for the developing world to compete with China's global initiatives, but they were searching for a consensus on how to forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, sits with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, ahead of a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, southern England, Sunday June 13, 2021. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP) Police photograph along the route of the motorcade of U.S. President Joe Biden after he attended a church service with first lady Jill Biden prior to the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the G7 wrap up three days of meetings in Carbis Bay Sunday, in which they discussed such topics as COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Jon Super) U.S. President Joe Biden, centre, arrives for Mass at Sacred Heart and St. Ia Catholic Church, in St. Ives, southern England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Biden is in England to attend the G-7 summit. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
CARBIS BAY, England (AP) — The leaders of the world’s richest countries have agreed to endorse a global minimum tax on multinational corporations.
The decision had been widely anticipated after finance ministers earlier this month embraced placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes and thus robbing some countries of much-needed revenue.
The minimum rate was championed by the United States and dovetails with the aim of President Joe Biden to focus the three-day G-7 summit in England that just ended on ways the democracies can support a more fair global economy by working together.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
CARBIS BAY, England (AP) — The Group of Seven leaders aim to end their first summit in two years with a punchy set of promises Sunday, including vaccinating the world against coronavirus, making huge corporations pay their fair share of taxes and tackling climate change with a blend of technology and money.
They want to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China.
But it was uncertain how firm the group’s commitments will be on coronavirus vaccines, the economy and the environment when the leaders issue their final communique. Also unclear was whether all of the leaders would back the United States’ call to chastise China for repressing its Uyghur minority and other abuses.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit's host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a “Global Britain,” his government's push to give the midsized country outsized global influence.
Yet Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland.
But overall, the mood has been positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The last G-7 summit was in France in 2019, with last year's event in the United States scuttled by the pandemic.
The leaders mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception on their first evening and were served steak and lobster at a beach barbecue after watching an aeronautic display by the Royal Air Force Red Arrows on their second.
America’s allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player after the “America First” policy of the Trump administration.
“The United States is back, and democracies of the world are standing together,” Biden said as he arrived in the U.K. on the first foreign trip of his 5-month-old presidency. After the G-7 summit, the president will have tea with the queen on Sunday, attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday and hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday.
At the G-7, Johnson described Biden as a “breath of fresh air.” French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking one-to-one with Biden, said, “It’s great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate.”
The re-energized G-7 made ambitious declarations during their meetings about girls’ education, preventing future pandemics and financing greener infrastructure globally. Above all, they vowed to share vaccine doses with less well-off nations that urgently need them. Johnson said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half of that coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other public health officials commended the vaccine pledge but said it's not enough. To truly end the pandemic, he said, 11 billion doses are needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the world's population by mid-2022.
“We need more and we need them faster,” Tedros said.
Climate change is a key focus of the leaders' final day of talks on Sunday, and the group is expected to announce new financing measures to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions.
The “Build Back Better for the World” plan will promise to offer financing for infrastructure — “from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia” — to help speed up the global shift to renewable energy. The plan is a response to China’s “belt and road” initiative, which has increased Beijing’s worldwide influence.
Climate activists and analysts say filling a $100 billion annual fund to help poor countries tackle the effects of global warming should be at the top of the G-7′s list.
All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too little, too late.
Naturalist David Attenborough addressed the leaders by video Sunday, warning that humanity is "on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet.”
“If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade — in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations — are the most important in human history,” the veteran documentary filmmaker said.
Max Lawson, head of inequality policy for Oxfam International, welcomed plans to boost investment to help poor countries reduce their carbon footprints but said "it doesn’t help the poor people that are being hit by climate change right now.”
"So, yes, it’s probably a good thing but is it enough? Absolutely not,” he said.
Large crowds of surfers and kayakers took to the sea in a mass protest Saturday to urge better protections for the world's oceans, while thousands beat drums as they marched outside the summit’s media center in Falmouth.
“G-7 is all greenwashing,” the protesters sang. “We’re drowning in promises, now’s the time to act.”
White House officials also said Biden wants the G-7 leaders to speak in a single voice against the forced labor practices targeting China’s Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Biden hopes the denunciation will be part of a joint statement Sunday, but some European allies are reluctant to split so forcefully with Beijing.
Canada, Britain and France largely endorsed Biden’s position on China, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed more hesitancy, according to two senior Biden administration officials.
The leaders’ final communique is also expected to formally embrace placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes.
The minimum rate was championed by the U.S., and dovetails with the aim of Biden — and Johnson — to focus the summit on ways the democracies can collaborate to build a more inclusive, fair global economy and to compete with rising autocracies like China.
Non-G-7 nations India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa were invited to attend as guests to bolster the group’s support for fellow democracies.
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Lawless, Kirka and Hui reported from Falmouth, England.
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Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate.
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