COVID-19 probe in China, less coal, 15% tax: What we learned from the G-7 summit in Cornwall

FALMOUTH, England – The Group of Seven summit in Cornwall ended here Sunday with world leaders calling for collective action to end the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future ones, embrace democratic values, reinvigorate global economies and take swift action to protect an imperiled planet from climate change.

Direct challenges to China were featured in the G-7's communiqué for the first time.

"America is back at the table," President Joe Biden said in a news conference. "The lack of participation in the past and full engagement was noticed significantly."

Biden has been here at the southwestern tip of the British Isles since Thursday for discussions with world leaders that have encompassed the coronavirus pandemic, an ascendant China, climate change and global inequality.

Later Sunday, Biden is traveling to Brussels for a NATO alliance summit on Monday and separate talks Tuesday with European Union leaders. But before he heads to continental Europe, Biden will briefly stop at Windsor Castle for tea with the queen.

Here's what was learned from the three-day summit:

China is the subtext to everything

Relations between wealthy G-7 industrialized nations and Beijing were not expected to be on the formal agenda in Cornwall. But China – its economic might, geopolitical ambition, approach to human rights and role in the coronavirus pandemic – informed much of the discussion over the past few days.

Five takeaways from Day 2 of G-7: COVID's 'roots,' China, protests at sea

The G-7's communiqué Sunday called for a "timely, transparent, expert-led and science-based WHO-convened" study into COVID-19's origins in China.

It also called on Beijing to respect human rights, especially in connection with allegations over its forced-labor camps in Xinjiang, and in Hong Kong, where Beijing has cracked down on the territory's autonomy.

“I think there’s plenty of action on China," Biden said. "I’m satisfied."

On Saturday, the leaders of the world's richest democracies unveiled a plan to counter China's growing influence among developing nations through an initiative called Build Back Better World, or B3W.

B3W is described as an alternative to President Xi Jinping’s multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure building program that spans dozens of countries as well as multiple oceans and continents. BRI takes the form of debt-financed ports, railways, highways, dams, cargo depots and other critical infrastructure.

"We think there's a much more equitable way to provide for the needs of countries around the world," Biden said in his new conference.

Still, Huiyao Wang, a senior adviser to China's government, told USA TODAY in a phone interview from Beijing on Sunday that whatever the goal of B3W may be, there is a danger it could further drive an adversarial wedge between the West and China.

"China doesn't want this to be 'us' versus 'you.' China started BRI because it saw there was a tremendous demand for it in the global south. If the U.S and other G-7 countries want to work on infrastructure projects in these places that's fine," he said.

The G-7 did not announce specific targets or a budget for its initiative.

Low coal is the goal

The British broadcaster and wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough told world leaders in Cornwall on Sunday that human beings may be "on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet" as he urged them to do more while they are in the U.K. to make potentially planet-changing decisions on climate change.

"The decisions we make this decade – in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations – are the most important in human history," he said

Biden overseas: 4 takeaways from Joe Biden's first meeting with Boris Johnson

Attenborough's warning came as the White House announced that Biden and his fellow G-7 leaders had agreed a "concrete set of actions" to accelerate the transition from "unabated coal power generation," which is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Under the plan, G-7 countries will, by the end of this year, halt all government support for international thermal coal power generation.

'Who's got all the money? We have':G-7 protests hit the beach with blimps, games, banners, flames, kayaks, air horns and more

They committed to provide up to $2 billion in investment money focused on helping developing countries move away from coal to cleaner energies. They also pledged, for the first time, to "align their long-term and short-term climate goals in a manner consistent" with keeping projected global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But for many of the protesters who descended on Cornwall over the past few days, those pledges were not enough to stave off the climate emergency.

This pandemic and the next one

Leaders committed to the Carbis Bay Declaration, a series of recommendations and steps G-7 countries will take to prevent a future pandemic.

Those steps include cutting the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days; a commitment to reinforce global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity; and support for reforming and strengthening the World Health Organization.

More: COVID-19: U.S. to donate 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to the world

G-7 leaders were also asked to donate 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries over the next year. Biden pledged to donate 500 million doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to nearly 100 lower-income countries and the African Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his country would gift more than 100 million doses.

Leaders said they recognized that to end the coronavirus pandemic in 2022 would mean vaccinating at least 60% of the world's population.

Biden said it's possible the U.S. could donate another 1 billion doses.

15% – at the very least

G-7 leaders endorsed a U.S. plan for a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%. That is to prevent large companies such as Amazon from paying little to no tax by shifting their profits and revenue to low-tax countries or jurisdictions.

"With this, we have taken a significant step towards creating a fairer tax system fit for the 21st century, and reversing a 40-year race to the bottom," the G-7's communiqué said. "Our collaboration will create a stronger level playing field, and it will help raise more tax revenue to support investment and it will crack down on tax avoidance."

At his own news conference, Biden promised to "move on this at home as well.”

Don't book tickets to the U.K. just yet

Biden and Johnson launched a travel task force that will make policy recommendations about safely reopening international travel between the U.K. and the USA. But no specific timing was announced.

One of the reasons a date has not been set is that British scientists believe the U.K. may be starting to see a third wave of coronavirus infections as a result of the Delta variant first detected in India, which is more transmissible than other coronavirus variants.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, more than 4.5 million Americans visited the U.K. every year, and more than 5 million British nationals traveled to the USA annually.

U.S. is back, but with limits

Biden's first stop on his first overseas trip as president saw him warmly embraced by world leaders, who spoke approvingly of his multilateralist values and commitment to democracy promotion around the world.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was attending her final G-7 summit before she steps down as Germany's leader, put Biden's return to the world stage in context.

"Look, the election of Joe Biden as U.S. president doesn't mean that the world no longer has problems," Merkel said. "But we can work on the solution of these problems with a new zest."

One area where Biden was apparently ineffective in Cornwall: On the sidelines of the summit, an argument between Johnson and EU leaders over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could affect a peace treaty in Northern Ireland worsened.

Next stop: NATO.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: G-7: What we learned from the summit attended by President Joe Biden