DThe environment and energy ministers of the G-20 countries were unable to agree on more ambitious targets to tackle climate change at their two-day meeting in Naples. Italian Environment Minister Roberto Cingolani, host of the meeting, acknowledged at the conclusion of a meeting of twenty major industrial and emerging countries on Friday evening that there was no agreement on two key points of the 60-paragraph comprehensive final declaration. Italy is chairing the G-20 grouping this year and has been holding meetings of line ministers in various cities across the country for months in preparation for the G-20 summit in Rome on 30 and 31 October.
According to Singolani, countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia did not want to commit to achieving the goal of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees by 2030, for which the European Union, the United States, Canada and Japan are striving. are doing. . Instead, there was only a general declaration of intent by G-20 states for the Paris climate agreement, which sets a goal of limiting global warming to below two degrees. Even the commitment to a first phase of coal-fired power generation, which was urged by the United States and Europeans, led to opposition from major coal producers such as Australia and major coal importers such as Australia. Could not be included in final document. China.
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In addition, an agreement on the subject of nature conservation failed. Singolani said that by the end of this decade only some, and by no means all, states had spoken in favor of keeping 30 percent of land and marine areas under protection. The head of the United Nations Climate Secretariat in Bonn, Patricia Espinosa, warned G-20 states that because they account for 80 percent of global economic output and 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the countries of the Group of States should work together. needed. The goal has been set to reduce global warming. Espinosa called on the G-20 to show more determination at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow in November.
Germany was represented in Naples by Jochen Flasbarth (SPD), Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Environment. Flasbarth said that there is still a lot of persuasion in emerging countries in terms of environmental, climate and nature conservation. Views in countries such as China, India or Russia on the use of fossil fuels differed greatly from those of the European Union and the United States. So far, emerging countries have mainly seen their role in calling for industrialized countries to do more to protect the climate. But now that the G-20 states appeared for the first time “as a community of responsibility” and “formulated missions to fight climate change together”, Flassbarth called the “weak” final document from the Naples meeting, regardless of one. drew a positive conclusion. . In addition, all have committed to revise their national climate goals by the time of the World Climate Conference to be held in Glasgow.
