MILAN (Reuters) – Italy is struggling to reach agreement on a joint statement over climate commitments among G20 countries days before a summit it will chair next week, the Italian energy transition minister said on Friday.
Italy, this year’s president of the Group of 20 rich and emerging nations, hosts the G20 meeting on the environment, climate and energy which kicks off in the southern city of Naples on Thursday.
Cingolani, picked as minister by Mario Draghi earlier this year, said different levels of economic development around the world made it hard to find common ground on climate commitments.
“We currently have all teams at work and I can assure you we are finding it hard to come up with a shared document… and we’re talking about 20 countries, not 160,” the minister said in a webinar.
The G20 countries make up around 80% of world GDP, Cingolani said, “and already these 20 are finding it hard to accept 55% decarbonisation by 2030.”
The summit comes a week after Brussels unveiled its most ambitious plan yet to tackle climate change and meet a collective goal of cutting net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.
The package is likely to face intense lobbying from poorer European member states that want to protect their citizens from price rises.
(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes, editing by Gavin Jones and Raissa Kasolowsky)
