The G7 has closed its doors on the Cornwall summit. A three-day get-together of the world’s most advanced economies was highly anticipated. Not least because of the additional challenges posed by the global pandemic. Yet in reality, it was a case of much pomp and very little circumstance. The run-up was dominated by the Johnson-Biden powwow. All lapped up by the British premier, who was keen to show everyone and their cat that the United Kingdom remains a key player on the world stage; regardless of what the French might think. Though, ultimately, it was Boris Johnson who tried to dumb down the ongoing Brexit trade row with talk of sausages. Not Emmanuel Macron. The highlight of the show was to demonstrate global capitalism’s caring- and-sharing side. Thus, came the chapped lip-service that called on Ethiopia to cut it out and halt the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in that country. As if none of the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — has benefited from arms sales resulting in bombs-and-bullets raining down on the wretched of the earth from Yemen to Syria. Nevertheless, the pièce de résistance was the pledge to dig deep and help the poorest nations with inoculation drives. Yet this translated into a a paltry one billion vaccinations, as opposed to the 11 billion required to immunise 70 percent of the world’s population by mid 2022. And even then, the US is fronting half this amount. If there was no drum roll, it was with good reason. In fact, former British PM Gordon Brown went one step further and lambasted these half-measures an “unforgivable moral failure”. He has a point. Especially considering that Covid-19 hardly slowed down defence spending. In reality, it seemed that the G7 were more interested in chastising the usual suspects; those who challenge American hegemony in different parts of the world. Hence, the repeated calls on China to facilitate a second probe into the origins of the corona virus. As well as a joint communiqué promising action against Beijing’s “non-market economic practices”. The urging of Beijing to respect human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong was thrown in for good measure. Naturally, the Uighur suffering is unacceptable and needs to stop. But it smacks of insincerity when the world’s wealthiest nations effectively missed the G7 boat on climate change. Certainly, there were murmurings about raising contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 bn a year to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and tackle the global warming threat. But, as with most things, the devil remains in the detail and there was none. Greenpeace, the environmental organisation, put it succinctly when it said that without any agreement to end fossil fuel projects — the meeting has been all talk and no action. The biggest takeaway from the G7 summit is not just that the richest nations missed the boat on redressing the unfair global balance that leaves the vast majority of the world’s population as have-nots. But that that they aren’t even bothered if the rest of the word sinks or swims. *