Italy will bet on a future without emissions in its presidency of the G20

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said today that Italy will promote the fight against climate change and how to achieve rapid transitions to an emission-free future in his G20 presidency next year.

“Italy is firmly committed to achieving carbon output by 2050 (…). In the G20 presidency, Italy will focus on the climate-energy nexus and how to achieve rapid transitions towards an emission-free future,” the prime minister said at the G20 virtual summit this weekend, official sources confirmed.

He opted to “promote the dissemination of clean and efficient technologies, with special attention to the modernization of urban centers, including smart cities, and the conditions for a green, employment-generating and sustainable future.”

He also stressed that “the impacts of the pandemic on social and economic systems should not affect” the determination of countries to face challenges such as environmental protection and the fight against climate change.

“Rather, they should encourage us to recognise that the current economic, financial and productive systems do not adequately take into account the climate and environmental emergency,” he said, while welcoming the fact that the European Union will devote at least 37% of the financial resources of its NextGenerationEU recovery plan to green investments.

“The existential threat posed by climate change, land degradation and the decline of global biodiversity have already brought us to a crossroads that will determine whether we are able to safeguard our planet and build a sustainable future.”

Source: The Vanguard