Qualla: 47th G7 summit

47th G7 summit: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fattili, CC BY-SA 4.0. There is a long beach of yellow sand at Carbis Bay, just east of St Ives on the north coast of Cornwall, with a single hotel rising above the dunes and the train line to Penzance curling along the cliffs behind. In normal times, this is an English seaside resort - holidaymakers, surf schools, dogs, ice cream. From 11 to 13 June 2021 it became the most heavily guarded patch of sand in Europe. Joe Biden, less than five months into his presidency, made his first overseas trip here. Angela Merkel attended what would be her last G7 as German Chancellor. Mario Draghi and Yoshihide Suga showed up for the only time in office. Boris Johnson hosted in a beach hut, Queen Elizabeth II hosted dinner at the Eden Project, and the AUKUS deal that would later humiliate France was quietly stitched together in private rooms while the President of France was on the same site, knowing nothing.

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Image: Fattili | CC BY-SA 4.0

47th G7 summit: Choosing Carbis Bay

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gazamp, CC BY-SA 4.0. Johnson's choice of Cornwall was deliberate. The pandemic-era summit needed open air, controllable access, and a story to tell. Carbis Bay offered all three: a small private beach, a hotel that could be requisitioned, and views west across St Ives Bay toward Godrevy lighthouse - ...

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Image: Gazamp | CC BY-SA 4.0

47th G7 summit: The Pandemic Agenda

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister of Canada, CC BY 3.0. COVID-19 dominated the talks. The G7 nations pledged one billion vaccine doses to the rest of the world - a number that critics immediately called insufficient and that aid organisations argued would arrive too late to matter most. Johnson proposed a five-point plan for future pa...

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Image: Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister of Canada | CC BY 3.0

47th G7 summit: Climate, Tax, and AUKUS

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain. Climate was the second great theme. The UK was hosting COP26 in November and wanted the G7 to arrive there with momentum. The group pledged net-zero emissions by 2050, though the agreement on a carbon border tax favoured by the EU was wobbly - Australia, present as an invited gue...

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Image: U.S. Department of State from United States | Public domain

47th G7 summit: What Cornwall Got

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The White House, Public domain. Cornwall got, in short order: a temporary boost in tourism marketing, several beach photographs that ran on every front page in the world, and a sharp spike in COVID-19. In the week before the summit, confirmed cases in Cornwall ran at 2.8 per 100,000 population. By the Sunday af...

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Image: The White House | Public domain