Status: 07/24/2021 12:12 a.m.
More ambitious climate goals – nonexistent. The environment and energy ministers of the G20 countries have not been able to agree on this. On the German side there was talk of “difficult negotiations”.
At a meeting in Naples, the G20 ministers for the environment, climate and energy were unable to agree on more ambitious climate targets. The joint final declaration lacks a commitment to want to achieve the 1.5 degree target by the end of 2030. Italian minister Roberto Cingolani said several countries had refused to do so.
However, the group again committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. The common goal is to keep global warming well below 2 degrees and to continue efforts to reduce it to 1.5 degrees. The German Secretary of State for the Environment, Jochen Flasbarth, spoke of very difficult negotiations. UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa warned the G20 group from leading industrial and emerging countries that it was responsible for 80 percent of all global emissions. Without the G20, there would be no way to 1.5 degrees.
Call for more determination in Glasgow
Espinosa called for more determination to be shown at the world climate conference in Glasgow in November. The two-day meeting in Naples also served to prepare for the G20 summit in Rome at the end of October. The group of economically strong countries on all continents includes the USA, China, Russia and Germany. Italy has the presidency this year. Germany was represented by State Secretary Flasbarth. Flasbarth told the dpa news agency that he still saw a lot of need for persuasion in emerging countries. In countries like China, India or Russia there are still very different views on the use of fossil energy.
The Paris climate agreement wants to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. But the earth has already warmed up by around 1.2 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. The consequences: Depending on the region, there are more heat waves and droughts as well as heavy rain, storms, storms and floods.
Also no agreement on nature conservation
There was also no agreement on conservation efforts. Only a few states have spoken out in favor of placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection by the end of this decade. Flasbarth said that so far the emerging countries had seen their role primarily in calling on the industrialized countries to do more to protect the climate. That is why the negotiations were very difficult, even if there were positive signals. For the first time, the G20 states “acted as a community of responsibility and formulated the mission to fight climate change together”. In addition, everyone has committed to revising their national climate targets by the time the World Climate Conference takes place.