The leaders of the 20 main economies of the planet began this Saturday in Rome their first face-to-face summit since the appearance of the coronavirus, under pressure to send a strong signal against global warming on the eve of COP26 in Glasgow.
“We still have time to get things back on track and this G20 meeting is an opportunity,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said yesterday, warning of the “serious risk” of a failure at the conference to be held in Scotland .
The world leaders began to arrive at mid-morning at “The Cloud”, the congress center where the meeting of the leaders of the 20 nations takes place, and were received by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi for the summit that formally began at noon.
Among those present in the EUR neighborhood, designed by the dictator Benito Mussolini at the beginning of the 20th century, is Argentine President Alberto Fernández, who will meet in the afternoon with Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in full renegotiation of your debt.
“If we still do not close an agreement [con el FMI] It is because we are not going to kneel, ”said Fernández on Wednesday, who, along with the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, are the only leaders of Latin America in Rome in the absence of the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
AMLO’s is not the only one. Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida participate by videoconference in the meeting with the leaders of the United States, Europe or India, among others.
To guarantee security and in the face of the different demonstrations called on Saturday (unions, extreme left, Fridays for Future), 5,000 members of the forces of order were deployed and helicopters and drones will fly over the Italian capital.
– Increase climate ambition? –
The climate is the protagonist of the agenda of the G20 summit, scheduled until Sunday in the Eternal City and which will also address the fight against covid-19, although the discussion remains open, according to knowledgeable sources.
“There are two parallel debates: Should we increase our common ambition at the G20 level, reinforcing the objectives of climate neutrality (…)? And what are the concrete objectives? ”Said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already advanced on the way to the G20 that they will not stop “climate change neither in Rome nor at the COP meeting” in Glasgow. “The most we can hope for is to slow the rise” in temperatures.
In Paris in 2015, the international community pledged to strive to limit global warming to +1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era and, in Scotland, they must now set the medium-term timetable for actions, such as reducing gas emissions. pollutants.
Despite the expectations, no great progress is expected on the meeting topics, beyond the ratification by the leaders of the pact reached weeks ago to apply a worldwide corporate tax of 15% from 2023.
– 133 vs 4 –
The devastating effects of the coronavirus, both human and economic, will also be on the menu at the weekend meeting in Rome, as well as the debt of the poorest countries, which demand, for their part, that developed nations stop hoarding the anticovid vaccines.
“In high-income countries, 133 doses of the anticovid vaccine were administered for every 100 people, while in low-income countries 4 doses have been administered for every 100,” several UN organizations denounced on Friday, including that of Health (WHO).
At the beginning of September, the international financing mechanism Covax, promoted by the WHO among others, revised down its dose forecasts in 2021, to 1,425 million. The initial goal of 2 billion should now be reached in the first quarter of 2022.
After a preview on Friday marked by the diplomacy of Pope Francis and the first meeting in person between the presidents of the United States, Joe Biden, and France, Emmanuel Macron, after the submarine crisis, the bilateral meetings continue.
The Argentine pontiff met for the first time this Saturday with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who invited him to visit his country, at a time of growing violence against religious minorities in this nation with a Hindu majority.
The leaders of the European powers that participated in the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 – France, the United Kingdom and Germany – must address their reactivation with Biden. On Sunday, Macron and Johnson must address the fisheries crisis in the English Channel.
By Toni CERDÀ and Kelly VELÁSQUEZ
