The G20, China and Arabia have suspended (but that is) the climate deal. Steel, a return to the historic US-EU agreement

IsUnderstanding Between the United States and EuropeSteel And aluminum, one of the major trade disputes between the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The deal was announced at the G20 summit in Rome yesterday. On the contrary, climate negotiations continue. Diplomatic sources in the Cloud, the summit’s headquarters, explain that “the game is not over.” “Climate talks will continue unabated.” Hopefully, until this evening everything is still possible but now, at least in terms of climate change, the summit of the capital is a significant failure.

The climate schedule, confirmed by the first draft of the Joint Report, did not reach the expected agreements. On the contrary. The hypotheses spread on Eve would have been revised downwards, inserting general time notes and some concrete action. In fact, compared to the document that the media sees, there are many doubts. On the one hand, there is the commitment to control global warming above 1.5 ° C (already defined in 2015) and to stop funding the production of coal-fired electricity abroad by the end of this year. They are writing “we must do what we can” to stop the construction of new coal plants by 2029, with no precise indications of how this should happen.

After all, the idea of ​​reaching the zero-emission target by 2050 will disappear.

Stop
In fact, China and Saudi Arabia (with India’s consent) have been reluctant to add a more limited time limit. In other words, the two countries alone account for 40% of global CO2 emissions, and they have every interest in moving the calendar further. They asked that the x date be set to 2060. In his speech, President Xi Jinping re-proposed the defense plan that Beijing has always put in place. In other words, it is the “most developed nations” that have long begun to damage the planet, leading by example. They “need to understand the difficulties of those in development”. There is no better plan to present at COP26, the climate conference organized by the UN in Glasgow starting today, in which the G20 is a kind of start. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told G20 leaders in Rome yesterday: “Let it be clear: Glasgow is in serious danger of failure. Many recent announcements have opened up happy opportunities, but unfortunately this is an illusion. The EU’s commitment is not enough, with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, “on the path to becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The data shows that we have already reduced. Although emissions are 31% higher than in 1990, our economy has grown by 60%.
As in Glasgow, despite the strong protests of the people who took to the streets in Rome and around the world, each leader has an economy to defend his own priorities. Raise chess board is complicated. Beijing does not want to deviate from the status quo and Russia has not exchanged any international agreement on any of the “significant” results already reached (and is waiting for news of the EU’s Nortstream 2 gas pipeline), and does not want to stop Brazil. Deforestation, India continues to produce 60% of its energy from coal and Saudi Arabia is ready to support them for economic opportunity rather than real environmental impact. So it is not surprising that the situation remains unresolved despite the efforts of Italy, Europe and the United States.
Returning to the conflict over steel and aluminum, the agreement would allow the removal of more than $ 10 billion in taxes on respective exports each year. The deal was announced by US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raymondo on the sidelines of the summit. Under the agreement in principle, the EU will be allowed to import “limited quantities” of metals without US obligations. In addition, both sides will suspend cases pending before the bodies of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The trade controversy began in 2018 when US President Donald Trump imposed special taxes on steel and aluminum imports. The EU responded with retaliatory taxes on American products such as jeans, bourbon whiskey, motorcycles and peanut butter.