Rome: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday that the summit of the world’s top 20 economies had disappointed him, but hadn’t crushed his hopes.
“I leave Rome with my hopes unfulfilled, but at least they are not buried,” he wrote on Twitter. G20 leaders earlier on Sunday agreed on a final statement that urged “meaningful and effective” action to limit global warming but offered few concrete commitments or details on how they would reach goals to limit harmful carbon emissions.
Targets blur
- Leaders of G20 agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad
- However, they have set no target for phasing out coal domestically — a clear nod to coal-dependent countries, including China and India
President Joe Biden said at the Group of 20 summit on Sunday that leaders must talk about ways to relieve the supply chain bottlenecks hampering the global economy as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite devoting a combined USD 15 trillion to combat the fallout from Covid-19, many of the world’s largest economies are slogging through mass shortages as ships are waiting to dock, the prices of shipping containers climb, not enough trucks exist to haul goods from ports, and virus outbreaks halt factory production.
Supply chain issues have emerged as a point of economic and political pain for Biden, as the delays have contributed to inflation and potentially put a damper on holiday shopping.
Biden also met Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and appeared with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, to discuss an agreement between the US and EU to settle a rift over Trump-era tariffs on steel and aluminum. The President also met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore and they talked about a “free and open” Indo-Pacific, according to the White House.
The President will also hold a formal news conference, though his domestic agenda might generate as much attention as his foreign policy efforts. House Democrats hope to vote Tuesday on Biden’s USD 1.75 trillion spending plan for families, health care and the environment as well as on his USD 1 trillion infrastructure plan that has already cleared the Senate.
Italy will triple its climate finance contribution to 1.4 billion dollars per year for the next five years, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday in its final remarks at the G20 leaders summit in Rome. “I am glad to announce that Italy will nearly triple its financial commitment to 1.4 billion dollars per year,” he said.