The Rome Group of 20 (G20) summit provides a forum for a range of sidelines meetings, including between leaders of the UK, Frence, Germany and the US on Iran. AFP
Group of 20 (G20) leaders gathered for a second day of their Rome summit on October 31, with all eyes on whether they could deliver a meaningful commitment on climate change ahead of crucial UN talks.
The G20 major economies emit nearly 80 per cent of carbon emissions, and a promise of action would provide a much-needed boost to COP26 climate talks which were set to start in Glasgow on October 31.
But draft communiques suggest they would fall short of a firm pledge to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels or a clear timeline on how to reach net zero emissions.
Experts say meeting the 1.5C target – the most ambitious goal in the 2015 Paris climate deal – means slashing global emissions nearly in half by 2030 and to “net-zero” by 2050.
However, some activists expressed hope that in the final hours of wrangling, some progress would be made before nearly 200 leaders, including many of those in Rome, fly to Scotland.
US President Joe Biden is among those pushing for action in Rome, although his own ambitious climate policy is mired by infighting among his own party.
A senior US official said elements of the final G20 statement “are still being negotiated”, adding that the Rome summit was about “helping build momentum” before Glasgow.
The official expressed hope that the summit would commit “to end overseas financing of coal”, offer “positive language” on decarbonising the power sector and see more countries sign up to targets on cutting methane.
Speaking to the weekly Journal du Dimanche, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the Rome summit had to “do its utmost” to ensure the success of Glasgow, but that “nothing is ever written before a COP”.
“Let’s not forget that in Paris, in 2015, nothing was decided in advance,” he said.
President Xi Jinping of China – by far the world’s biggest carbon polluter – is absent from the meeting, as is Russia’s Vladimir Putin, although they sent representatives and are logging in via video link.
Britain’s Prince Charles, a long-time environmentalist, was due to make his case for change on October 31 as a special guest of the summit, speaking ahead of final working sessions.
On October 30, summit host Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, urged G20 leaders to act together on climate, but also on improving the delivery of vaccines and on helping the world recover from the devastation of Covid-19.
“From the pandemic, to climate change, to fair and equitable taxation, going it alone is simply not an option,” he told the gathered leaders.
The G20 showed on October 30 they could work together on some issues, green-lighting a deal for a minimum tax of 15 per cent on global corporations, as part of a reform plan inked by almost 140 nations.
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen hailed it as “historic”, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – attending her last G20 summit with her likely successor Olaf Scholz – called it a “great success”.
Rome hosted the first in-person G20 summit since the coronavirus pandemic, and chose to do it in the monumental surroundings of EUR, a fascist-era neighbourhood known for its modernist architecture.
The gathering gave leaders the chance for sideline meetings, including several involving Biden.
He mended fences with France’s Emmanuel Macron after a recent row over a submarine deal, and the pair met with their British and German counterparts to express “grave and growing concern” over Iran’s nuclear activities.
On October 31, the US president’s agenda included bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan covering Syria, Libya and defence deals.
Earlier in October the Turkish leader threatened to expel ambassadors from the US and nine other Western nations over their support for a jailed Turkish civil society leader.
