It was one of the major projects of the G20, organized in Rome until Sunday October 31.
But a few hours before the COP26 in Glasgow, the leaders of the most developed countries of the world have reached an agreement at least on their commitment to fight climate change, which will be included in the final communiqué of the Rome summit, according to the final version of the text that Reuters was able to consult.
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Discussions on the measures to be taken to try to limit the catastrophic effects of climate change were particularly difficult as the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow opened on Sunday.
After overnight negotiations at the diplomatic level, the heads of state and government have not made any commitment that suggests that they will be able to meet the stated objective of limiting the increase in global warming to 1 , 5 degree Celsius.
Deadline passed, 2050
The draft final press release is even less ambitious than the previous versions which had circulated since Saturday, the deadline of 2050 to achieve "net zero emissions" not appearing in particular.
"The fight against climate change is the decisive challenge of our time," warned the head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, while welcoming his peers on Sunday when the debates resumed.
"Either we act now, bear the cost of the transition and manage to drive our economy on a more sustainable path, or we procrastinate, pay a higher cost later and risk failure," he said.
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The draft final press release does not reflect any new commitment giving hope for a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which experts and environmental organizations stress are urgent in order to avoid a disaster.
The lack of a major breakthrough at the G20 summit does not bode well as COP26 opens on climate in Glasgow, which most leaders went directly to the end of the Rome summit - with the notable exception Chinese presidents Xi Jinping and Russian presidents Vladimir Putin who did not come to the Italian capital.
Carbon neutrality "by or around the middle of the century"
The draft final communiqué remains far below the expectations of the experts, notably for lack of consensus on the rate at which the biggest polluters can achieve "net zero emissions".
United Nations experts believe it is necessary to achieve this by 2050 to avoid a warming which is expected to reach 2.7 degrees by the end of the century if no additional measures are taken.
China, the world's largest emitter, however, does not plan to reach net zero emissions before 2060, while Russia and India, two other major polluters, have not made any commitments on this subject.
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In their draft final communiqué, the G20 leaders recognize the importance of achieving "net zero emissions" or carbon neutrality "by or around the middle of the century", a formulation sufficiently vague to leave room for all interpretations, even if the text also calls on countries to act from "this decade".
They no longer even commit to doing everything they can to "significantly reduce emissions", as was the case before, contenting themselves with noting that decarbonising the economy is "one of the fastest, most important ways. feasible and least costly to limit climate change ".
End of financing of coal-fired power plants
G20 leaders also pledge to cooperate technologically to help developing countries move away from coal-fired power plants "as soon as possible", and pledge to end fossil fuel subsidies "in the medium term" - commitments too vague in the eyes of experts.
More concretely but relatively symbolically, they pledge to stop funding the construction of new generation coal plants in other countries by the end of the year.
The final communiqué finally recognizes the "importance" of providing developing countries with the $ 100 billion a year that rich countries pledged 12 years ago to pay them from 2020 to help them fight against consequences of climate change.
A promise that they have not kept so far, which worsens the crisis of confidence at the global level, had deplored, Friday, the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres.
With Reuters
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