ROME/GLASGOW, OCTOBER 31 – The 1.5 is there but there is no mention of 2050: of the two crucial numbers of the climate pact to be signed at the Glasgow Summit, the date by which to aim for a zero-emission world remains missing in action. With this outcome the G20 climate summit in Rome passes the baton to the Cop26 in Glasgow. The final document of the leaders’s meeting commits to keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees and recognizes that it is scientifically proven that action is needed, but the specific deadline for a zero-emission world is replaced by a more generic “within or around” mid-century.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who was looking to bring home consensus on both points ahed of the Glasgow meeting, the result is still still a “success”, which “lays the foundations for a more equitable recovery”: Draghi recalled that the Paris Agreements does not mention any deadlines, neither vague nor precise.
“It was not easy to reach this agreement, it was a success”, Draghi said during the final press conference thanking the Sherpas and those who participated in the organisation of the “extraordinary” G20. Less positive was Boris Johnson, who as British PM took the baton as co-organiser of CoP26 in Scotland: “It is not enough” and “promises begin to sound empty”.
Draghi, on the other hand, said that the summit has made him confident in the ability that the G20 seems to have found to face existential epochal challenges, from Covid to climate change: “We have laid the foundations for a more equitable recovery”.
“On climate, for the first time the G20 countries have committed to keep at hand the objective of containing global warming below 1.5 degrees – explained the Prime Minister – with immediate actions and medium-term commitments. Even on coal, public funding will not go beyond the end of this year… The urgency is there and has been shared by all and we see it in the fact that the 1.5 degrees target has been recognised as scientifically valid. There was also a commitment not to undertake emission policies that run against the trend that everyone set on their agenda until 2030. This commitment can be expected to be maintained. After Paris, emissions increased, and especially after Covid. There is some concern and we must now demonstrate credibility by implementing the promises”. And again, thinking about tomorrow: “The Glasgow Summit must mark the beginning of a permanent campaign”.
The G20 also laid the foundations for “a more equitable recovery and found new ways to support countries, for the first time 609 billion dollars on special drawing rights are dedicated to the most vulnerable countries”, said the Italian Prime Minister.
The media’s verdict is positive: if ‘Politico Europe’ wrote that Draghi, after saving the Euro, is on a mission to save the multilateral world order, for the ‘New York Times’ the Italian PM “emerged as a continental leader. In his brief opening speech at the summit, in which he said that ‘going alone is not an option’, he defined the agenda”. (@OnuItalia)
