Italy: G20 members unable to fully agree on all aspects of climate communique

У вашего броузера проблема в совместимости с HTML5

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “[The communique] has a number of areas that have been in some way adjusted. The first is how to combat climate change. Here, I will be blunt because I think it’s important for you to know the spirit of what happened. The Paris Agreement say we need to keep the temperature rise below two degrees during the second half of the decade. But, as you know, there is work going on, in great part by European countries, the new United States with their new President as well as Canada and the others, to push harder and reach what is called: ‘Well below two celsius.’ This would be more or less 1.5 degrees. It doesn’t seem like much, but this half of a degree can change things the impact on climate change in the second half of the decade in an enormous way.”

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “I can guarantee you that there isn’t one country that doubts the Paris agreements. Not just because they signed it, but also because everybody sees the floods and the catastrophes. So, all the big countries are convinced, they are convinced socially and politically.”

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “We have an agreement that I believe is absolutely unprecedented. I repeat, for the first time G20 accepts that climate, politics, and energy are all connected.”

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “So there were essentially two [articles that countries didn’t all agree on]. I wouldn’t even call it disagreeing, it’s much more like dealignment. Number one, is the problem of saying, do we really feel like putting our signature guaranteeing 1.5 degrees, with all of our efforts concentrated, initially, on doing it this decade? Well, we said yes, us [Italy] the United States, Canada, all of Europe. Some countries said, look, for how we are organised, we can say that we feel like we can respect the Paris accords, OK? However, since this meant that they wouldn’t sign our paragraph that said: ‘We do our best to keep temperature below 1.5 degrees by the end of the decade.’ This is the typical phrase, they said no we can’t say this, but we will respect the Paris accords.”

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “The second point regards coal. Everybody is agreed that we will have a phase-out of coal. We [Italy] have said 2025, Europe says 2025, some countries say that they won’t be able to do it by 2025. There is a problem regarding incentives. You all know that we don’t incentivise anything that is coal in this moment, as one would expect. However, in some countries, due to energy politics, there are some incentives for people who produce any form of energy. So, we tried to write a phrase in the agreement that said: ‘There will be incentives for not only those who produce clean energy, but also for those who are decarbonising compared to what is being used right now. So, if you really have to incentivise something that isn’t very clean, at least let’s do it to things that have positives after it’s all gone. But these countries didn’t agree on this point.”

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “There were 15 countries in the G20 that were all in accordance on this type of approach, and then there were four or five that couldn’t guarantee it in this moment. It will all be explained. Russia, China, India. Then, Saudi Arabia was very open to the idea, I have the feeling there was a fourth country but right now I can’t remember. But basically the big ones, the big ones, let’s call them, which, by the way, are quite easy to understand.”

SOT, Journalist (Italian): “Indonesia?”
Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “No, they voted in favour.”
Journalist (Italian): “Brazil?”
Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “Right now, I can’t remember, I’ll check again in a moment. It’s that after 24 hours, in these conditions. Try and remember that there were 60 articles, we checked each one, adjective after adjective. So, I’m a bit confused as well right now.”

SOT, Roberto Cingolani, Italian minister for ecological transition (Italian): “I want that you all consider something. What happened today was something unthinkable four months ago. The positions of certain countries four months ago regarding these topics were: ‘We are not even going to talk about this.’ Today we discussed them and we were able to find what I would call a compromise, an agreement, almost in full. So, this learning curve, which also happens thanks to protests on one hand and on catastrophes on the other. Everybody started their discussion by offering their condolences to our Dutch colleagues, who were invited as non-permanent members, and our German colleagues.”