According to the latest text reviewed by Reuters, G20 leaders agreed on Sunday at least to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
This is one of the main projects of the G20, organized in Rome on Sunday, October 31st. But a few hours before the COP26 in Glasgow, the leaders of the world’s most developed countries at least reached an agreement on their commitment to address climate change, and the agreement will be included in the final communiqué of the Rome summit. The final version of the text available to Reuters.
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With the opening of the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow on Sunday, discussions on measures to limit the catastrophic effects of climate change have become particularly difficult.
After a night of diplomatic negotiations, the heads of state and government did not make any promises that they will be able to achieve the set goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The deadline has passed, 2050
The final draft press release is not even as ambitious as the previous version distributed since Saturday, especially since there is no deadline for achieving “net zero emissions” by 2050.
“Addressing climate change is the decisive challenge of our time,” Mario Draghi, the head of the Italian government, welcomed his colleagues when he resumed the debate on Sunday.
“Either we take action now, bear the costs of transformation and try to push our economy on a more sustainable path, or we delay, pay higher costs later and risk failure,” he said.
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The final draft of the press release did not reflect any new commitments, and brought hope to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Experts and environmental organizations emphasized that this is urgently needed in order to avoid disasters.
The lack of major breakthroughs at the G20 summit is not a good sign, because climate COP26 opened in Glasgow, and most leaders went straight to the end of the Rome summit—except for Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who did not come to Italy. capital.
Achieve carbon neutrality “by the middle of this century”
The draft of the final communiqué is still far below the expectations of experts, especially the lack of consensus on the speed at which the biggest polluters can achieve “net zero emissions.”
UN experts believe that if no additional measures are taken, it is necessary to achieve this goal in 2050 to avoid the expected warming of 2.7 degrees at the end of this century.
However, as the world’s largest emitter, China does not intend to achieve net zero emissions before 2060, while the other two major polluters, Russia and India, have not made any commitments on this issue.
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In their draft final communiqué, G20 leaders recognized the importance of achieving “net zero emissions” or carbon neutrality “by the middle of this century”. This expression is very vague enough to leave room for all explanations, even if The text also called for questions about countries starting to take action from “this decade.”
They no longer even commit to “significantly reduce emissions” as they did before, but are content to point out that economic decarbonization is “one of the fastest and most important ways to limit climate change. Feasible and lowest cost.”
Financing for coal-fired power plants ends
The G20 leaders also promised to cooperate on technology to help developing countries get rid of coal-fired power plants “as soon as possible”, and promised to end fossil fuel subsidies “in the mid-term”-these promises are too vague in the eyes of experts.
More concrete but relatively symbolic, they promised to stop funding the construction of a new generation of coal-fired power plants in other countries before the end of the year.
The final communiqué finally acknowledged the “importance” of providing developing countries with the US$100 billion promised 12 years ago to provide developing countries with US$100 billion each year, starting payment in 2020 to help them cope with the consequences of climate change.
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Antonio Guterres) said that their so far failed promises exacerbated the global crisis of confidence.
With Reuters