The leaders of the main economic powers held on Saturday the first face-to-face summit since the start of the coronavirus pandemic with climate change, the economic recovery after COVID-19 and a global minimum corporate tax on their agenda.
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi hosted the Group of 20 heads of state at the Nuvola convention center in the fascist-era EUR neighborhood, which was isolated from the rest of Rome. The first session of the summit focused on global health and the economy, with a side meeting between US President Joe Biden; the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel; French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss next steps on Iran’s nuclear program.
Draghi opened the forum with a strong call to redouble efforts to bring COVID-19 vaccines to less prosperous countries.
The Italian leader stressed that while 70% of the population of rich countries has already received two doses, in the poorest countries that percentage falls to just 3%, something that he described as “morally unacceptable.”
Draghi urged the attendees to close a new commitment to multilateral cooperation: “The more we advance in our challenges, the clearer it becomes that multilateralism is the best answer to all the problems we face today (—-) In many ways, it is the only possible answer ”.
Italy expects the G20 to achieve key commitments from countries that account for 80% of the global economy – and that are responsible for almost the same amount of global carbon dioxide emissions – before the United Nations Climate Change Conference that kicks off Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.
Most of the heads of state and government who are in the Italian capital will head to Glasgow after the summit is over. The presidents of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, respectively, will participate remotely.
On the eve of the summit, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, warned that the COP26 in Glasgow could fail due to the still lukewarm commitments of the big polluters and challenged the G20 leaders to overcome the “dangerous levels of mistrust” among themselves and towards developing nations.
“Let’s be clear: there is a great risk that Glasgow will not deliver on its promise,” Guterres told reporters in Rome, adding that current government commitments “continue to condemn the world to a calamitous 2.7-degree increase” in global temperatures.
A recent UN environmental report concluded that announcements by dozens of countries to achieve emissions “neutrality” by 2050 could, if fully implemented, limit the rise in global temperature to 2.2 degrees Celsius (4 Fahrenheit ). It is close to, though still above, the target set in the Paris Climate Agreement of limiting it to 2 C (3.6 F) compared to pre-industrial times.
The UN chief also blamed geopolitical divisions for hindering global vaccination plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic, noting that the action “has taken a back seat to hoarding and vaccine nationalism.”
To try to address the inequalities, Johnson announced upon arrival in Rome on Saturday that Britain will donate 20 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca to developing countries. Some 10 million doses have already been distributed through the COVAX program, which is supported by the UN, and another 10 will be sent in the coming weeks, British authorities explained.
The G20 will likely conclude an agreement: a global minimum corporate tax. The group’s leaders are expected to formalize their commitment to set a minimum rate of 15% by 2023, an initiative that seeks to prevent multinationals from accumulating their profits in nations where they pay little or no taxes.
The initiative has been praised by White House officials as “decisive” because it would generate at least 60 billion new annual revenues in the United States, funds that could help defray the proposed package of social services and infrastructure of 3 trillion dollars. President Joe Biden’s dollars. The adoption of the tax in the country is key because many multinationals have their headquarters there.
Biden is also expected to raise concerns about the imbalance in supply and demand in global energy markets, said a senior government official who spoke to reporters Friday on condition of anonymity. According to the official, Biden will highlight the importance of finding greater stability in both the oil and gas markets, for the sake of a world economy that has already been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The summit offers an opportunity for gas dialogue because it includes delegations from large producing countries – such as Saudi Arabia and Russia_, from large consumers – Europe and China_, and from the United States, which is on both sides. But analysts doubt that it can generate any immediate effect.
For now, OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and its allies, including Russia, called OPEC +, have ignored Biden’s requests to increase production to more than 400,000 barrels a day each month until next year.
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