The G-7 is a group made up of the top political leaders of seven of the world's wealthiest countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The G-7 meets annually, and the location rotates through the member countries.

The U.K. was this year's host country. Leaders attending this year were these:

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
• French President Emmanuel Macron
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy
• Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga
• U.S. President Joe Biden
• Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
.

Also attending in an official was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, representing the European Union. The EU is not officially a G-7 member but does usually send a representative.

The pandemic plan also included plans for trimming to 100 days the time needed to develop and license COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and to improve early warning systems for combating the next global health crisis. The overall goal was to prevent a recurrence of the scale of the destruction caused by the coronavirus. Current figures estimate deaths at 3.7 million people and infections at 175 million people. Attending the second of the G7's sessions were U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization.

The leaders also affirmed their commitment to making greenhouse gas emissions a net of zero by 2050, partly by eliminating the use of coal power to a large extent, and to overall limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. However, the leaders did not agree on timelines for achieving such goals.

One wide-ranging agreement was to a global minimum tax, with an eye toward hampering multinational companies from finding tax havens in certain countries.

The nation's leaders also agreed to the Build Back Better World (B3W) plan, an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) being pushed by China. The target of both plans is helping other countries build roads, ports, and other elements of infrastructure. China has already done much of that, lending or giving billions of dollars to developing countries to help with vital internal improvements.

Another pledge addressed China in starker terms. The G-7 leaders urged China to respect human rights for all people, especially the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Allegations of mistreatment of such people abound.

The three-day G7 gathering took place at Carbis Bay, a seaside resort in Cornwall, England.

As has been the case for several years now, protesters gathered near the G-7 summit, calling for stronger words and action against human rights abuses and stronger commitments to timelines for addressing climate change concerns.