Climate change, the main topic at the second G20 meeting

At the first meeting, which was held yesterday, Saturday, the leaders discussed various international issues, reaching consensus on the application of a 15% minimum tax on large companies.

However, the G20 leaders failed to reach an agreement and there was little progress on the adoption of new measures against climate change, despite the fact that some leaders, such as Boris Johnson, stressed the urgency of curbing it, which will be discussed again at today's meeting.

The countries that make up the G20, including the United States, China, India, Brazil and Russia, contribute around 80% of carbon emissions.

Because of this, these early talks are a preview of what will be discussed over the next few days at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, which most of the G20 leaders will attend directly from Rome.

Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, said Friday that G20 leaders should offer more aid to poor countries, and that more action must be taken to curb the coming climate catastrophe. 

"It is unfortunate that messages to developing countries are just a means of procrastination. We have mileage ahead of our climate goals. We must pick up the pace," Guterres added.

Joe Biden, President of the United States, attended the meeting with the rest of the G20 leaders in the wake of the failure of the infrastructure bill, which would have been the largest investment in U.S. history, against climate change.

In this meeting, the first in person after the coronavirus pandemic crisis, there was a consensus among the G20 leaders regarding the application of a 15% minimum tax on large companies, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described as "historic" in order to put an end to the so-called "tax havens". 

It should be noted that the leaders of the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom met on the sidelines of the rest of the G20 to address Iran's nuclear program, which stated that a return to compliance with the Iran nuclear agreement, after the stalemate in the negotiations, "would provide for the lifting of sanctions". 

"This will only be possible if Iran changes course," the leaders said.

According to statements by a senior Biden administration official, "the diplomatic solution is the best solution to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon".

Likewise, according to Argentine government sources, another meeting that took place on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit was between the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernández, to discuss the importance of Mercosur for both countries. 

The Covid-19 pandemic was another key issue to be discussed, on which there was also no clear consensus among the leaders. 

Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin virtually attended the summit, where they commented on the unequal global distribution of vaccines. 

Today, Sunday, the second meeting of the G20 summit will conclude with a press conference by the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, although the Queen of the Netherlands and Prince Charles of Great Britain are also scheduled to speak. 

The objective of this second meeting, among others, is to try to reach an agreement on reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030. 

G20 leaders also recognize that the impact of climate change would be much less if the temperature increase were kept at 1.5° instead of 2° Celsius. 

One of the most complicated negotiations that is also expected concerns the commitment to help with 100 billion dollars a year until 2025, with the objective that developing countries implement measures to mitigate climate change.