G20 leaders renew commitment to limit global warming
Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies agree to
keep to the 1.5 degrees target for reducing global warming on the final day of
their two-day summit in Rome, which sought to bridge divisions over how best to
reduce carbon emissions ahead of COP26.
By Susy Hodges
This is the key level scientists have said is
necessary to avoid disastrous new climate patterns.
But observers said the communiqué contained few
concrete actions to limit those carbon emissions.
Overcoming divisions
The leaders were attending their first in-person G20
summit since the Covid-19 pandemic, and their agenda included not just climate
change but also international economic recovery, Covid-19 vaccines, and rising
energy prices.
In his opening address to the summit, Italian Prime
Minister Mario Draghi said governments had to work together to face up to the
formidable challenges facing our world, warning that “going it alone is simply
not an option.”
The G20 group is made up of 19 countries and the
European Union, and together they account for 80 percent of the world’s carbon
or greenhouse gas emissions.
Vaccines for developing nations
On the first day of their summit, the G20 leaders
agreed to supply more Covid vaccines to poorer nations with a pledge to vaccinate
70 percent of the world’s population against Covid-19 by mid-2022.
Ahead of the summit, activists had urged the G20
nations to end the scandal of global vaccine inequality, noting that less than
10 percent of the population in poorer nations had been vaccinated up to
now.
They called on the richer nations to stop hoarding
vaccines and help ensure that a UN target of vaccinating 40 percent of the
population in poor and lower-middle income countries is met by the end of this
year.
Corporate tax floor
The summit also saw agreement on a global minimum tax
rate of 15 percent aimed at stopping large businesses from hiding profits in
tax havens.
The G20 summit came just ahead of the crucial COP26 UN
climate change conference opening on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.
The COP26 conference is seen by many scientists as a
last-ditch chance to secure an agreement to keep global warming below 1.5
degrees Celsius.
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