G20 make commitments on climate neutrality, coal financing
CTV
Leaders of the world's biggest economies made a compromise commitment Sunday to reach carbon neutrality 'by or around mid-century' as they wrapped up a two-day summit that was laying the groundwork for the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
According to the final communique, the Group of 20 leaders also agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad, but set no target for phasing out coal domestically -- a clear nod to coal-dependent countries including China and India.
The Group of 20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and G20 host Italy and Glasgow-host Britain had been looking for more ambitious targets coming out of Rome. Without them, momentum for Glasgow could be lost.
Italian Premier Mario Draghi told the leaders going into the final working session Sunday that they needed both to set long-term goals and make short-term changes to reach them.
"We must accelerate the phasing-out of coal and invest more in renewable energy," he said. "We also need to make sure that we use available resources wisely, which means that we should become able to adapt our technologies and also our lifestyles to this new world."