G20 summit kicks off with sights set on an agreement to reduce emissions

The G20 summit, attended by the leaders of the world’s top 20 economies, as well as the presidents of the European Union and the European Council, has started this Saturday in Rome with two major absences: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Neither will that of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, nor the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi opened the summit by asking leaders for a increased international collaboration to face the pandemic, global economic recovery, fight climate change and, ultimately, build a “new economic model, from which the world will benefit.”

It is intended to reach a agreement on net zero emissions by 2050, with significant reductions by 2030 and the commitment to stay below the 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in temperature from now until the end of the century, a goal set at the Paris summit.

At the moment, the Earth is spinning at a temperature that could more than double. The European Union is expected reduce emissions by 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels).

China, for its part, has announced an emission reduction of 65%, maintaining the goal of reaching zero emissions by 2060; like India, although it has continued to build new coal plants, investing in renewables a third of what it does with fossil fuels.

Protests in the immediate vicinity

For this Saturday, various protests by activists against the climate emergency de ‘Fridays For Future’.

On the other hand, the Italian Police intervened early this morning to remove a blockade made up of approximately fifty protesters from the so-called Climate Camp, near the security zone of the G20 summit. They were sitting in the middle of the road shouting “If there are no changes, we will blockade the city.”