UN leader: Developing nations need more vaccines

He says leaders of developing economies need to urgently commit to net zero emissions by the middle of the century.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has welcomed commitments by the US and Britain to share millions of coronavirus vaccine shots with struggling countries. But he says it's not enough.

Without a global effort, Guterres says the coronavirus could "spread like wildfire" in much of developing world.

Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are expected to commit to share at least 1 billion vaccine shots with poorer countries, with half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K.

Guterres says to defeat the virus, countries producing vaccines need to form an emergency task force to coordinate an effective response to COVID-19.

"We need a concerted effort, we need a global vaccination plan," says Guterres, who will join the summit. "If not, the risk is there will still be large areas of the developing world where the virus spreads like wildfire." Guterres stressed "we are on the verge of the abyss" regarding climate change. He says leaders of developing economies need to urgently commit to net zero emissions by the middle of the century.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)