The G20 saves in Rome a minimum agreement on global warming before COP26

The leaders of the G20 sealed today in Rome their commitment to “make an effort” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, although decarbonization will be completed “around the middle of the century”, a vague formula with which they managed to close ranks but which did not satisfy everyone.

“We are proud of the result, but it is a start,” acknowledged the host prime minister, the Italian Mario Draghi, at the closing of the meetings.

The summit ended with a lengthy Declaration in which the G20 put in writing their determination for a “full and effective implementation” of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 2015 Paris Agreement.

This latest text aimed to keep global warming well below 2 degrees and included the will to carry out “efforts” to limit it to 1.5, a goal that has been endorsed at the Rome summit, although with half measures inks.

The heads of state or government of the G20 have now agreed to take “mitigation, adaptation and financing” actions for this purpose in “this critical decade”, although with an important nuance: “based on national circumstances”.

Specifically, reflecting “the principle of common responsibility” of each country and their respective and differentiated capacities.

“WE WILL BE JUDGED BY WHAT WE WILL DO”

“Now we must concentrate on getting it up and running because we will be judged by what we will do, not by what we say. This summit has filled our words with substance,” Draghi said to applause.

The Italian Prime Minister defended this result, given that until February the United States remained outside the Paris Agreement, at the will of former President Donald Trump.

In addition, last July, the G20 ministerial in Naples (south) for Energy and the Environment had failed in its attempt to add China and India to the 1.5 degree goal in this century.

And it is that the reduction of emissions is a thorny issue for the greatest powers, the most polluting, as it implies a radical change in their productive systems.

For this reason, to close ranks, the G20 did not end with a succession of concrete actions, nor with a clear commitment to decarbonization by 2050, but rather speaks of “around half a century”, since countries like Russia and China , the most populous on the planet, ask for at least another ten years to fulfill it.

THE DECEPTION OF GUTERRES

What the G20 deliberated on was important because this forum, with Spain and the Netherlands as permanent guests, encompasses 80% of the world’s wealth and 60% of the world’s population. In other words, their actions make a difference in the climatic battle.

In addition, the appointment in Rome had been presented as the prelude to the United Nations Summit on Climate Change (COP26) that started this Sunday in the British city of Glasgow.

That is why Prince Charles of England was invited to the Roman meeting, who encouraged the international community to “put aside differences” and combat this threat from Glasgow: “This is the last opportunity to act,” he warned before the plenary.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was leaving Rome with his “hope unfulfilled but not buried” and encouraged COP26 to “keep alive” the degree-and-a-half agreement.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, world leaders commit to take new measures throughout this decade, but also to help the most vulnerable, poor and, therefore, most exposed countries in the face of a climate disaster.

Knowing that changing the ecological transition costs money, they want to mobilize 100,000 million dollars (about 86,500 million euros) annually until 2025 to help them.

The US negotiators were especially interested in adding more countries to the Global Commitment on Methane, promoted together with the European Union, but all that remained was that the G20 “takes note” of initiatives to reduce that hydrocarbon.

THE OTHER ROME AGREEMENTS

The Rome summit, which leaves the image of world leaders throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain, has been the scene of other agreements. The first was the adoption, after long negotiations, of a global minimum tax on multinationals of 15% to balance the international tax system.

The Twenty also committed to vaccinating 70% of the world’s population against COVID-19 by 2022, by distributing drugs among the least prosperous countries.

And in addition, the president of the European Commission, Úrsula Von der Leyen, and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, ended the summit by celebrating the suspension of mutual tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed under the administration of Donald Trump.

Source: EFE