G-20 leaders vow virus vaccine support for all

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Leaders of the world’s most powerful nations wrapped up the Group of 20 summit on Sunday, vowing to spare no effort to protect lives and ensure affordable access to COVID19 vaccines for all people.

The two-day summit of heads of state was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 1.4 million people worldwide, with the highest death tolls recorded in seven of the G-20 countries. The virus has wiped out hundreds of millions of jobs globally and plunged millions into extreme poverty.

The virus “revealed vulnerabilities in our preparedness and response and underscored our common challenges,” the G-20 said in a final statement that focused heavily on battling the coronavirus, enhancing environmental protections and supporting the global economy.

The group vowed “to spare no effort to protect lives.”

Earlier Sunday, President Donald Trump railed against the Paris climate accord, telling world leaders that the agreement was designed to cripple the U.S. economy, not save the planet.

“To protect American workers, I withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris climate accord, a very unfair act for the United States,” Trump said in a video statement from the White House to the summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. His comments came during a discussion among the world’s largest economies on safeguarding the Earth.

President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office Jan. 20, has said he will rejoin the global pact that the U.S. helped forge five years ago.

Trump contended the international accord was “not designed to save the environment. It was designed to kill the American economy.”

Trump, who has worked to undo most of President Barack Obama’s efforts to fight climate change, said that since withdrawing from the climate agreement, the U.S. has reduced carbon emissions more than any nation.

That is true, but not remarkable. With its giant economy, the U.S. has far more raw emissions of