Failure at the G20 climate summit: China and India are not for the work of decarbonizing

The G20 Energy and Environment Ministers failed in Naples (southern Italy) to convince China and India to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, although they did agree to accelerate the ecological transition and encourage “green” investments.

“Two of the 60 planned articles were taken out of the final declaration because an agreement could not be reached,” Italian Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani said at a press conference, who had to delay his appearance due to discrepancies between the countries.

This Friday’s meeting, under the rotating presidency of Italy, was considered a key event on climate change before the COP26 (United Nations Conference on Climate Change) is held in November in the Scottish city of Glasgow (United Kingdom), and was “complex”.

The two points of contention that have not been supported by China and India have been to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the lowest possible figure contemplated in the Paris Agreements on climate change, and the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies and the closure of carbon plants in 2025.

The Italian presidency had also opted for the G20 to join the European Union’s (EU) intention to achieve a 55% reduction in polluting emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

There has been no agreement. On the aspect of reducing emissions to 55%, Cingolani had already lamented before the G20 that there were difficulties, since many countries maintain lower targets.

However, the intention to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees and the issue of decarbonization have provoked fierce opposition from China and India.

“There has been a long negotiation with China, India, Russia… We have had to suspend meetings on several occasions and talk to each of them,” he stressed, highlighting the crucial mediation of the US Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry.

“None have questioned the Paris Agreement,” he said, the differences have been in the degrees, because “some countries do not believe they can” commit to reducing emissions to keep the temperature at 1.5 degrees, since they have economic models “strongly based on coal.”

Common points were found in other areas such as promoting “green” finance, advancing in a more inclusive and sustainable economic recovery or increasingly betting on renewable energies.

Cingolani warned that the Italian presidency will prepare a detailed report on what happened, with the names of the countries that have put more impediments and the reasons, and will publish it soon.

The G20 Energy meeting concludes this way, after the session dedicated to biodiversity and the environment ended on Thursday with a communiqué without concrete commitments, and in which, among other things, a call was made for sustainable water management, the protection of biodiversity and the implementation of actions to achieve decarbonization.

“The Italian presidency is working to raise the bar for ambition globally. It is essential to find a common path: the only way to deal with climate change,” Italy’s Ministry of Ecological Transition said on social media before the meeting concluded.

This two-day G20 on Environment and Energy was attended by the Argentine Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Juan Cabandié, the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Martha Delgado, and the third Vice President of the Government of Spain and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera.

Also the French Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, and the Secretary of State of the Federal Ministry of the Environment of Germany, Jochen Flasbarth, among others.

The Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge said in a message on Twitter that Ribera and Kerry had met in Naples and had shared the need for the EU and the United States “to work together to achieve the greatest possible success at the next COP26 in Glasgow.”

The French minister also expressed herself in the same vein, stressing that “France and the United States are committed to convincing as many G20 countries as possible to increase their climate ambitions.”

Source: The Energy Newspaper