What G-20 gave to COP-26 - an update

It's action time as both G-20 annual summit and COP-26 climate summit happen in a week's duration.

What G-20 gave to COP-26 - an update

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• The story: The leaders of the world's richest economies agreed to pursue efforts to limit global warming with "meaningful and effective actions". The agreement from the G20 summit in Rome sadly made few concrete commitments, disappointing activists. Host nation Italy had hoped that firm targets would be set before the COP26 summit in Glasgow. It did not happen. UK PM Boris Johnson, hosting the COP26, said leaders' promises without action were "starting to sound hollow". The G20 group, made up of 19 countries and the European Union, accounts for 80% of the world's emissions.
• American update: US President Joe Biden said that there were a series of very productive meetings at the G20, adding that he was "looking forward to continuing to make progress" on climate issues in Glasgow. He also said China and Russia - among the world's biggest polluters - basically didn't show up on matters of the climate, which was disappointing.
• No commitment: The G20 communiqué, or official statement released by the leaders, also makes no reference to achieving net zero by 2050. Net zero means reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, until a country is absorbing the same amount of emissions from the atmosphere that it is putting out. The communiqué does pledge to stop financing new, unabated coal plants internationally by the end of this year - a strong message to coal-reliant nations such as China, Russia and India. But the G20 leaders stopped short of agreeing to end coal power in their own nations.

1. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in his closing statement that all of the G20 countries are committed to reaching the target by the mid-century. But China - the world's biggest polluter - and Russia have pushed that target out to 2060.
2. Neither China's President Xi Jinping, nor Russia's Vladimir Putin were in Rome for the conference (joined via video link). Their absence raised concerns that a deal would not be easy to reach.
3. Putin said his plan was to "not just to reach carbon neutrality, but to make sure that within the next three decades, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in Russia is lower than, for instance, that of our neighbours and colleagues in the EU."

• Climate finance: Draghi said that they were closer to reaching the goal of providing $100bn a year in climate financing to developing countries - a key pledge which has been pushed out to 2023. António Guterres, the UN's secretary-general, tweeted that he was leaving Rome with his "hopes unfulfilled" but not buried. PM Johnson had a gloomy message ahead of the conference: "If Glasgow fails, then the whole thing fails."
• What G20 did: On the first day of the two-day summit (30th October), the focus was on Covid and the economy, with an agreement being reached on a global tax rate which will see the profits of large businesses taxed at least 15%. It follows concern that multinational companies are re-routing their profits through low tax jurisdictions.
• Summary: The coming months would be crucial for the direction the world economy now takes, in terms of emissions and warming. India isn't committing to a net zero target, expecting others to make good on their financing commitments first. China is facing its own domestic problems and perhaps may take some more time before big bang energy reforms.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the link between what happened at the G-20 summit 2021, and what's expected to happen at COP-26, 2021. (2) What difference will a net zero targe 2050 or 2060 make, to the world? Explain.

#G20 #COP26 #US #India #China #emissions #Glasgow

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