Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The spectre of “stagflation” threatens the world once again. This time, the risk is the direct consequence of political provocations and war.

The planet is already 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than in pre-industrial times. July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded in 142 years. Despite the pandemic slowdown, 2020 has been the hottest year so far, ending the warmest decade (2011-2020) ever.

Quickly enabling greater and more affordable production of and access to Covid-19 medical needs are urgently needed in the South.

Addressing global warming requires cutting carbon emissions by almost half by 2030! For the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), emissions must fall by 45 percent below 2010 levels by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, instead of the 2.7 degrees Celsius now expected.

“The outlook for LDCs is grim.”—the latest United Nations (UN) assessment of the prospects for the least developed countries (LDCs) notes recent setbacks without finding any silver lining on the horizon.

The world should now be more aware of the likely Covid-19 devastation unless urgently checked. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a USD 8 billion plan to quickly vaccinate many more people to expedite the end of the pandemic.

US President Biden’s earlier support for a vaccine patent waiver raised hopes for his summit more than a week ago. However, it proved disappointing, not only for efforts to end the pandemic, but also for US leadership in these challenging times.

As developing countries struggle to cope with the pandemic, they risk being set back further by restrictive fiscal policies. These were imposed by rich countries who no longer practice them, if they ever did. Instead, the global South urgently needs bold policies to ensure adequate relief, recovery and reform.