G7 venue is perfect place to launch a green economic revolution
HERE we are eight days on from the announcement that Cornwall will host the world’s seven most powerful people in June and the scale of the announcement is only just beginning to sink in.
Prime Ministers and Presidents from the world’s leading democracies will come together in Carbis Bay for the G7 Summit.
The G7 – made up of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the USA, plus the EU – is the only forum where leaders of the world’s most influential and open societies and advanced economies are brought together for close-knit discussions. They will also be joined by the leaders of Australia, India and South Korea. In Carbis Bay itself, many people are still coming to terms with the scale of the announcement and what it will bring. Today we feature Lee Trewhela’s feature on the bay’s residents, which was first published on our sister website Cornwall Live. Residents speak of mixed emotions, of their pride that their beautiful home has been picked, and their fears of overcrowding, and disruption.
Tourism experts in Cornwall estimate the summit could create an extra £50 million for the local economy. Supporters and opponents of the summit will bicker over that figure until the cows come home, but the real benefits to Cornwall are likely to go beyond pure financials and be long-term.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson sees taking the summit to Cornwall as part of his pledge to ‘level up’ the economy, and any efforts to bring the wheels of Government outside of the Westminster bubble should be applauded. Coming to Cornwall is a recognition that the county is a rural area likely to be at the cutting edge of the post-coronavirus economy. The decarbonised digitised economy of tomorrow will need areas like Cornwall, and the rest of the Great South West, to lead the way in building back better.
On the day of the announcement Prime Minister Johnson said: “Cornwall is the perfect location for such a crucial summit. Two hundred years ago Cornwall’s tin and copper mines were at the heart of the UK’s industrial revolution and this summer Cornwall will again be the nucleus of great global change and advancement.”
And on this he is right. The coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the world. Millions will die, economies will be ravaged. Today it remains uncertain that the G7 will even be able to go ahead, but assuming it does, the leaders’ challenge will be to ensure they begin the process of the world rebuilding itself in a very different manner indeed. Cooperation and collaboration on an unprecedented scale will be required to protect mankind from its invisible enemies, and to protect the world from the ravages of mankind.
It really is quite something. In addition to being the starting point for what will have to be a new political, economic, and environmental revolution, Cornwall will know that the Earth’s most powerful people will leave knowing they have visited one of the most special places on the planet.