Reaching a climate pre-agreement to secure Cop26 in Glasgow.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi's goal is to play ahead, tackling with all the leaders of the G20 - including China - the knots to be solved in order to steer towards those zero emissions whose deadline seems to be getting further and further away. If Beijing has already announced that it will not participate in the climate summit, President Xi Jinping will instead, albeit virtually, at the G20 in Rome, making possible a direct comparison with the country that holds the first place in the unflattering ranking of greenhouse gas emissions. . Unthinkable - as perhaps useless - an agreement that does not understand it. And the same goes for Putin's Russia.
But the first major summit in attendance after the closure of the world to defend itself from Covid has another great ambition, that of a massive intervention to be able to give the final turn to the fight against the pandemic. By helping the most fragile countries to immunize the population.
Towards the COP26 that will follow the G20 on 30 and 31 October, several clouds are actually gathering, not least the decision of Australia, one of the main coal exporters, to postpone the goal of net zero emissions to 2050.
Without intermediate stages. After all, Canberra is among the countries that, according to rumors, is working, together with Japan and Saudi Arabia, to reduce the objectives of the summit. And an appeal has also come from the UN for a more decisive response from the leaders of the earth, on pain of the risk of a catastrophe.
The road is undoubtedly uphill but Italy is convinced that if it is true that each country has its own priorities and interests, it is also true that they are all aware of the need and urgency to intervene. The mantra is to contain global warming by 1 and a half degrees, as required by the Paris accords. The difficulty lies in the steps necessary to succeed and in the timing, given that many countries have already failed to comply with those set in Paris. But the conviction is that, by Friday, an agreement in principle can be reached.
After all, Draghi explained it clearly at the end of the EU Summit last week: "Without the involvement of the major world economies - he said - we will not be able to respect the Paris agreements and contain global warming by one and a half degrees. The EU is responsible for just 8% of global emissions. The G20 countries as a whole produce about three quarters of the total. The climate crisis can only be managed if all the major global players decide to act incisively, coordinated and simultaneously " .
This also applies to the effort to provide vaccines to the most fragile countries. Although in reality, according to what is learned, the work of the G20 will be focused on helping those countries to be able to manage vaccines. In fact, organizing an immunization campaign means having the necessary health facilities, qualified personnel, the ability to store vaccines at the right temperature. And that's where the chain jams.
The first summit in attendance will also be an opportunity for the resumption of bilateral non-G20 issues. Draghi will receive Biden at Palazzo Chigi on Friday and will also meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But the two-way confrontation for more than one leader will be the place to clear up misunderstandings or smooth out friction. Biden and President Macron will see each other for the first time since the submarine crisis, just as the meeting between the US and Turkish presidents will aim at a clarification between the two. No bilateral instead with Putin who, like Xi, will participate remotely.
While the leaders will discuss the issues on the agenda and visit the beauties of the center of Rome, close to the very armored red zone that will surround the Fuksas Cloud, flown over by drones and controlled by over 5 thousand men, there will be protests.
From the students of Fridays For Future, to the workers of Gkn, Ilva, up to the flash mobs of Oxfam, Emergency and Amnesty.
(HANDLE).