Updated / Friday, 29 Oct 2021
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have arrived in Rome for the G20 summit
The leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies should use a meeting this weekend in Rome to agree how to transfer surplus Covid-19 vaccines to low-income countries, a group of former presidents and prime ministers has said.
In a letter to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, 100 former leaders and government ministers from around the world urged him to use the G20 summit to address what they said was an unfair distribution of vaccines.
The group said the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada would be stockpiling 240 million unused vaccines by the end of the month, which these nations' military could immediately airlift to countries in greater need.
By the end of February a total of 1.1 billion surplus vaccines could be transferred, it said.
"It would be unethical for all these vaccines to be wasted when globally there are 10,000 deaths from Covid-19 every day, many of which could be averted," said the letter, whose signatories include former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former British prime minister Gordon Brown.
The group said the World Health Organization's aim for 40% of the world's population to be vaccinated by the end of the year could only be met if the G20 made a joint decision to order an emergency transfer of their excess vaccine supplies.
"Vaccine inequality also constitutes a threat to us all," it said.
"We are all not safe until everyone is safe. Without urgent and widespread vaccination, variants will continue to arise in unvaccinated regions, and may well spread from there to challenge the vaccine protection achieved hitherto in more vaccinated countries."
G20 host Italy had hoped the G20 summit would see all leaders meet face-to-face.
However, China's President Xi Jinping will participate via video link, while Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will also not attend in person.
US President Joe Biden has arrived in Rome to attend.
The G20, whose countries account for 80% of global carbon emissions, is considered an important stepping stone before the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Scotland, which begins on Sunday.
Mr Xi is also not expected to attend COP26 in person, which could indicate that the world's biggest CO2 producer has already decided that it has no more concessions to offer at the UN COP26 climate summit after three major pledges since last year, climate watchers said.
The G20 also aims to underline that rich countries should stump up $100 billion per year to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.
This goal was supposed to be achieved by 2020, according to an agreement reached in 2009, but has not been met.
The head the Health Service Executive's Vaccine Programme has said that Ireland recently completed a delivery of 340,000 vaccines, which were at risk of expiring, to Uganda.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Damien McCallion Ireland has sufficient vaccine stock to support its booster programme and has ceased delivery of all its vaccines.
He said Ireland has committed around 1 million vaccines under the international COVAX programme by year's end.
Where there are vaccines in danger of expiring, he said, bilateral agreements with other countries that need them will be undertaken.
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