It was time !

The leaders of the major economies of the planet, meeting in G20 in Rome, managed to agree this Sunday on commitments for the climate a little more ambitious than those of the Paris agreement.

According to the draft final communiqué, the G20 reaffirms the objective of the Paris agreement, namely "to keep the average increase in temperature well below 2 degrees and to continue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees at above pre-industrial levels ”.

But he goes a step further by adding: “Keeping (the target of) 1.5 degrees within reach will require significant and effective actions and commitments from all countries”.

Either a "stronger language" than that of the Paris agreement of 2015, indicated two sources participating in the negotiations.

End of subsidies for coal-fired power plants

G20 countries have also agreed to stop subsidizing new overseas coal-fired power plant projects this year.

"We will end the granting of international public funding for new coal-fired power plants by the end of 2021", indicates the text, which does not, however, give an objective for the abandonment of coal on a national level.

The negotiations on the climate continued all night, according to a European source.

One of the issues in the negotiations was the date to be set to achieve carbon neutrality: 2050?

2060?

“Mid-century” is the wording adopted by the G20 in the final document.

A horizon less precise than the date of 2050 desired in particular by the Italian presidency of the G20, "but quite significant, considering the diversity of the countries participating in the G20", according to the French presidency.

“Some people ask us why we change our goals from 2 degrees to 1.5 degrees.

Why ?

Because that's what science says, ”Mario Draghi told his counterparts on Sunday morning.

"We must heed the warnings of the scientific community: respond to the climate crisis this decade".

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