News Desk :
In the G-20 summit in Rome the European Union and United States on Sunday reached in an agreement to suspend steel and aluminum tariffs also promising to work jointly on a new global and sustainable steel arrangement.
“This agreement is a “big step forward in fighting climate change. The agreement marks a milestone in the renewed EU-US partnership. And it is our goal to achieve the decarbonisation of the global steel production and trade,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday in a joint statement with US President Biden, different international news media outlets reported.
The EU commission president went on to say that this arrangement is open to all like-minded partners. “Steel manufacturing is one of the highest carbon emission sources globally. And for steel consumption and trade to be sustainable, we must address the carbon intensity of the industry,” she said.
Following the US announcement of the easing of steel and aluminum tariffs, the EU leader announced that the commission will also propose to suspend the tariffs that the bloc had introduced. “I’m also pleased to join President Biden in announcing the pausing of our dispute on this issue in the World Trade Organisation,” von der Leyen said.
However, it was largely criticized that leaders of G-20 major economies though have agreed on a final statement on Sunday that urges “meaningful and effective” action to limit global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, offered a few concrete commitments.
It is feared that result of days of tough negotiation among diplomats leaves huge work to be done at a broader United Nations climate summit in Scotland, to where most of the G20 leaders will fly directly from Rome. The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for an estimated 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
According to media report, the final document elaborates current national plans on how to curb emissions will have to be strengthened “if necessary” and makes no specific reference to 2050 as a date to achieve net zero carbon emissions.
“We recognize that the impacts of climate change at 1.5°C are much lower than at 2°C. Keeping 1.5°C within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries,” the communique said.
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, has set a target date of 2060, and other large polluters such as India and Russia have also not committed to the 2050 target date. UN experts say that even if current national plans are fully implemented, the world is headed for global warming of 2.7 degrees, with a catastrophic acceleration of events such as drought, storms and flooding.
On methane, which has a more potent but less lasting impact than carbon dioxide on global warming, they watered down their wording from a previous draft.
Meanwhile, US President Biden has hailed an end to a long-festering trade war with the EU over steel and aluminum tariffs issued by his predecessor, President Trump. Biden said it was a “testament to the power of our strong partnership and to what the US can accomplish by working together with our friends.”
Earlier, the leaders from the world’s major economies discussed issues of mutual concern, including pandemic recovery and climate change in the G-20 Summit that began in Italy’s capital Rome on the opening day, Saturday. The two-day (October 30-31) G20 summit under the Italian Presidency has focus on three broad and interconnected pillars of action: People, Planet and Prosperity. Within the three pillars, the forum has decided to take the lead role in ensuring a swift international response to the Covid-19 pandemic while building up resilience to future health-related shocks.
Before the meeting kicked off, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi welcomed US President Joe Biden and other leaders amid strict COVID-19 protocols.
It was actually the leaders’ first face-to-face meeting in two years, following last year’s virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador were not present there physically citing pandemic concerns at home.
On day one, G-20 leaders voiced their support for a global corporate minimum tax deal agreed by finance ministers from 136 countries earlier this month after four years of negotiations led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The deal would mean a sweeping overhaul of international tax rules. Under the deal, countries will apply a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15% for companies with annual revenues of more than $870 million, while large multinational companies must pay taxes where they operate, not just where they are headquartered.
“The president emphasized the importance of this historic deal during his intervention,” a senior administration official said.
“G-20 members are right to celebrate this deal,” said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The question is whether and how soon G20 members can implement the agreement within their respective domestic legal frameworks.
On Friday, G-20 health and finance ministers released a communique committing to bringing the pandemic under control globally as soon as possible, and strengthening collective efforts to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics.
The communique said the G-20 will take all necessary steps needed to advance global goals of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, as recommended by the World Health Organization.
The ministers announced the formation of a new panel to improve the global response to future pandemics but did not specify any funding for the task force. They could not reach agreement on a separate financing mechanism proposed by the U.S. and Indonesia to prepare for future pandemics.
“We’re looking for not the ultimate final product of a financing mechanism or the ultimate final product of a taskforce or a board that would operate as kind of a global coordinating body going forward,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told media on Thursday. “So the hope is to have in the communiqué a statement of intent that we will work towards these two outcomes.”
The G20 was born in 1999 as a consultation forum between finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s major economies. Following the 2008 economic crisis, it became a forum between Heads of State and Government, aimed at improving coordination on the main global issues.
