G20 achieves “insufficient” climate agreement ahead of UN conference

The countries of G20, responsible for 80% of the emissions of greenhouse gases, reached an agreement on their climate ambitions this Sunday, for some an insufficient signal for the conference of the HIM-HER-IT about weather that started in Glasgow.

The leaders of the 20 most developed nations pledged to limit global warming to 1.5ºC compared to the pre-industrial era and to reduce the use of coal, but failed to set a precise date for carbon neutrality.

“We are proud of these results, but we must remember that it is only the beginning,” said the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, after two days of meeting in Rome, for whom these are “one more step in a long and difficult transition.”

The pressure on the first face-to-face G20 summit since 2019 was strong. From the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, until the Pope Francisco, calls for ambitious measures multiplied until the last minute.

“I am leaving Rome with my hopes unsatisfied, but at least they are not buried,” Guterres tweeted. For the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, “reasonable progress was made (…), but it is not enough.”

The language used in the statement is “stronger” than in the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to two negotiators. The G20 pledged to “continue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5ºC”, a goal that requires “significant actions and commitments.”

The countries also promised to stop financing the construction of new coal-fired power plants abroad, although without specifying any measures at the national level, and advocated achieving carbon neutrality “by mid-century or around that date.”

This last reference, less specific than the year 2050 defended by Italy, is “very significant considering the diversity of the countries that participate in the G20,” the French presidency relativized. China, which emits more than a quarter of greenhouse gases, plans to achieve this by 2060.

The 20 most developed nations, including Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, also reaffirmed the commitment, until now unfulfilled, to mobilize 100 billion dollars for the costs of adaptation to the climate change in developing countries.

“The effects of this transition can be negative for developing nations if this unequal condition is not taken into account” with the developed ones, the Argentine president tweeted. Alberto Fernandez, also defending “sustainable foreign debt agreements.”

“If Glasgow Fails, Everything Fails”

But for NGOs it was not enough. “If the G20 was a dress rehearsal for COP26, world leaders were wrong,” he said. Jennifer Morgan, from Greenpeace. “Everything is half measures instead of concrete actions,” he told AFP Friederike Röder, from Global Citizen.

The ball is now at the UN climate conference (COP26), whose president, the British Secretary of State Alok Sharma, described as “last and best opportunity to meet the objective of + 1.5ºC”, during its opening.

“If Glasgow fails, everything fails,” he stressed. Johnson in the Eternal City in reference to this annual appointment, under the aegis of the UN, which will seek until November 12 in the Scottish city to establish commitments in the fight against climate change.

The current edition is even more important since it cannot be held in 2020 due to the pandemic. Pope Francis even asked to pray so that “this meeting can give effective answers, thus giving hope to future generations.”

The agenda of the ministerial conference has four main issues and is so complex that the negotiations were opened this Sunday, without waiting for the great speeches of some 130 leaders, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

At the start of the event, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned in a report that the seven years between 2015 and 2021 will likely be the warmest on record to date and warned that the climate is entering “uncharted territory.”



Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx

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