Climate crisis, famine, pandemic and wars. The world is in a state of emergency. Shortly before the G-7 meeting, demands on the seven large participating industrialized countries are getting louder and louder.
Police helicopter during a sightseeing flight over the G-7 site with Elmau Castle on June 23, 2022
(dpa)
To combat the global hunger and climate crisis, the Oxfam organization is calling for a special tax on extra profits for large corporations before the G-7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria. “The G-7 must agree on an action plan against hunger and poverty and to launch an excess profit tax and debt relief,” said Tobias Hauschild, development finance expert at Oxfam Germany, in a statement published on Friday. Starting Sunday, the heads of state and government of the G-7 countries want to meet for a three-day summit at Schloss Elmau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The aid organization calculated that a one-time special tax of 90 percent on extra profits alone would mobilize more than 430 billion US dollars for the largest companies in the G-7 countries. This is enough money to fill the funding gaps of all United Nations humanitarian appeals, fund a 10-year plan to end hunger, and provide a one-time grant of more than US$3,000 to the poorest 10 percent of the G-7 population -Paying dollars, they said. Above all, one could thus avert the impending famine in East and West Africa.
In addition, Oxfam is calling on the heads of state and government to work towards more equitable access to vaccines, medicines and tests worldwide in the wake of the corona pandemic. According to Oxfam, this required a comprehensive release of patent protection on technologies, the transfer of knowledge and know-how, and investment in local production. Only 18 percent of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated at least once. This shows how badly the G-7 countries have failed in their self-imposed goal of fair distribution.
Low-income countries should also receive significant debt relief, as Oxfam is demanding. The G-7 must also help to ensure that people in these countries have better access to social security. The organization is also calling for more efforts in climate protection, since rampant hunger is also a consequence of the worsening climate crisis.