At G-20, deals struck on climate and taxes, but skeptics doubt their reach

People participate in a climate-oriented protest during the G-20 summit in Rome. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)

“Group of 20” leaders, representing the world’s largest economies, convened for a climate-focused second day of a two-day summit, before heading to Glasgow, Scotland, for a major climate conference.

Here’s what to know

• The leaders discussed what wealthy countries owe poorer ones that are trying to develop in a climate-friendly way and that may already be feeling the devastating impacts of climate change.
• Leaders announced a major deal on coal plants and another on corporate taxes, but skeptics said national interests could undermine those agreements.
• President Biden met with individual country leaders and held a news conference before leaving for Glasgow.

Biden speaks emotionally of Pope Francis

By Naftali Bendavid4:39 p.m.

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Biden ended his participation in the G-20 summit with emotional comments about Pope Francis, after he was asked about his recent meeting with the pope at the event’s concluding news conference.

“I just find my relationship with him one that I personally take real solace in,” the president said, appearing to choke up as he talked about the pope comforting Biden’s family after the death of his son Beau in 2015. “He is a really, truly, genuinely decent man.”

Biden, the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy, recalled that when Francis visited the United States that year, “the wounds were still raw with the loss of my son,” and the pontiff asked to meet with the then-vice president’s extended family.

On Oct. 31, the last day of the G- 20 summit in Rome, President Biden took a question about his meeting with Pope Francis and recalled an earlier encounter. (The Washington Post)

“He came in and talked to my family for a considerable amount of time, 10 or 15 minutes, about my son Beau,” Biden recounted. “He didn’t just generically talk about him — he knew about him, he knew what he did, he knew where he went to school … It meant a great deal.”

Some American Catholic bishops have recently asserted that Biden, as a supporter of abortion rights, should not be allowed to receive Communion. On Friday, Biden said the pope told him he was a good Catholic who should continue to receive the sacrament.

Francis “is someone who is looking to establish peace and decency and honor, not just in the Catholic Church, but just generally,” Biden said, adding, “He is everything I learned about Catholicism from the time I was a kid, going from grade school through high school.”

Biden seeks to reassert U.S. leadership

By Laura Reiley4:34 p.m.

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President Biden discussed the importance of the United States at the G-20 summit on Oct. 31 as his domestic poll numbers fell in recent days. (The Washington Post)

President Biden, in his news conference wrapping up the G-20 summit, asserted that the United States is reclaiming its global leadership role despite the turbulence of American politics and the uncertainty about where the country is headed.

In response to a question about why the world should believe America is back, Biden cited his warm reception from other leaders at the summit. “Because of the way they reacted,” Biden said. “They sought me out, they wanted to know what our views were. And we helped lead what would happen here.”

The president added, “The United States of America is the most critical part of this entire agenda.”

Biden was also asked about his decreasing poll numbers, saying polls rise and fall for every president and adding that he did not run to notch high approval ratings.

“I ran to make sure that I followed through on what I said I would do as president of the United States,” Biden said. “And I said that I would make sure that we were in a position where we dealt with climate change, where we moved in a direction that would significantly improve the prospects of American workers to have good jobs and good pay. And further, that I would make sure that we dealt with the crisis that was caused by covid. We’ve done all of those, we continue to do them, and we’ll see what happens.”

And he attributed the complaints of some advocates that the summit’s accomplishments were minimal to the failure of Russia and China to participate more fully.

“The disappointment relates to the fact that Russia and China basically didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change,” Biden said. “There’s a reason why people should be disappointed in that — I found it disappointing myself.”

U.N. chief unimpressed with G-20 agreements

By Washington Post Staff2:06 p.m.

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U.N. Secretary General António Guterres signaled on Twitter that he was underwhelmed by what the world’s wealthy nations have agreed to do on climate.

G-20 moved toward global cooperation but yielded a ‘bare minimum’ climate deal

By Chico Harlan2:00 p.m.

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As the G-20 wrapped up, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said it had succeeded in reestablishing a multilateral system that had been broken in recent years, as leaders reached agreements aimed at fighting climate change and easing vaccine inequities.

“We have a common ambition now, which we didn’t have before,” Draghi said.

But he also made it clear that many of the pledges on the climate — the focus of Sunday’s meetings — still need to be backed up by concrete action. Climate change activists are skeptical that will happen, given how the world’s industrialized countries, which emit the most greenhouse gases, are far behind the pace necessary to avert disaster.

“It’s easy to suggest difficult things,” Draghi said. “It’s very very difficult to actually execute them.”

The G-20 leaders set at least a few clear climate targets. Notably, they agreed to stop funding coal plants abroad by the end of the year. They also acknowledged the need to hit net-zero emissions “by or around mid-century” and affirmed the need to provide annual funding of $100 billion to poorer countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Many experts on climate policy said the agreement does break some modest ground. Countries clearly stated their desire to reach the more ambitious of the two targets laid out in the Paris climate accords, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, rather than 2 degrees.

But those experts also said the agreement lacked the substance necessary to follow through on that goal.

Claire Fyson, who co-heads the policy team at Climate Analytics in Berlin, called the deal “the bare minimum.”

As the COP26 climate summit opens in Glasgow, smaller countries are watching the G-20 closely, hoping the major emitters set a tone that could jump-start the international climate talks.

“The feeling I get — all eyes are on the G-20,” Fyson said. “If they don’t move fast enough, the rest of the world can’t compensate for that.”

Biden announces actions to protect supply chains

By Annie Linskey1:37 p.m.

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President Biden, speaking at the Group of 20 summit in Rome on Oct. 31, announced actions his administration is taking to tackle supply chain delays. (The Washington Post)

ROME — Biden, saying global supply chains must be improved, pledged Sunday to provide additional funding and improved management of mineral stockpiles to ease problems with production and moving goods to market.

“Supply chain is something that most of our citizens never think twice about unless something goes wrong,” he said in remarks at the G-20 summit. “And during this pandemic, we’ve seen delays and backlogs of goods.”

Slowdowns in supply chains have led to massive delays of goods moving internationally and threaten to slow the economic recovery from the pandemic, both globally and in the United States. The problems have caused huge increases in shipping costs, fueling inflation — which, in turn, could become a political problem for Biden and the Democratic Party.

Biden said he would sign an executive order Sunday giving the Pentagon the ability to more quickly release material from the National Defense Stockpile. He also announced an effort to cut the customs-related red tape that has delayed goods flowing through Southeast Asia. And he offered technical assistance to break bottlenecks that are slowing supply routes through Mexico and Central America.

“Now that we have seen how vulnerable these lines of global commerce can be, we cannot go back to business as usual,” Biden said.

The announcements were part of a “Summit on Global Supply Chain Resilience” that Biden convened with the European Union and other countries to focus on strengthening and diversifying global supply chains.

Governments can play a key role, Biden said, in anticipating and responding to shortages, ensuring supply chains are not relying on child labor and finding ways to reduce supply chains’ effect on climate change.

Daily life at an eerie standstill in summit neighborhood

By Stefano Pitrelli10:10 a.m.

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When the G-20 ends later Sunday, there will be one immediate benefit for local residents: Those living in the surrounding neighborhood, known as EUR, will get their normal lives back.

During the two-day summit, EUR has been a neighborhood transformed. Streets have been cut off. Many businesses have been closed. At one of the few open cafes, employees needed permission slips to come to work, and U.S. Secret Service members were among the clients.

“Most residents disappeared. I think they’re holed up in their homes, a bit scared by the event,” said Dario Rosa, the cafe’s owner. “People will ask me, ‘Aren’t you afraid?,’ and I tell them, ‘I think I’m in one of the most secure spots of the whole planet.’”

On Sunday morning in the deserted neighborhood, under a gray sky and military helicopters, a 4-year-old dressed as a witch was strolling hand-in-hand with her father, holding an empty plastic Halloween pumpkin basket. Entrepreneur Loris Talone, 52, and daughter Vittoria were the only civilians in sight on the street, which was populated by police, paramedics, journalists, and professional drivers idling as they awaited their passengers.

Talone and his daughter would soon be stepping out of the “Red Zone” surrounding the event. Talone said he and his family had spent all Saturday holed up at home, an experience he compared to the coronavirus lockdown, and were finally about to take Vittoria trick-or-treating in the city center.

Only there, in a more normal part of town, could she “play, celebrate, buy masks and makeup,” he said.

G-20 countries pledge to stop financing coal plants abroad

By Chico Harlan9:31 a.m.

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Leaders of the world’s largest economies reached an agreement Sunday to halt the public financing of coal-fired power plants abroad by the end of this year, but they did not set a target for ending coal use domestically.

The countries, as part of the deal, also pledged to “enhance where necessary” their national emissions-cutting plans for 2030. The United Nations has said those plans must be ramped up dramatically to stave off catastrophe.

The agreement noted that the dire effects of climate change would be significantly less if the globe’s temperature rose 1.5 degrees Celsius rather than 2 degrees, and noted the importance of limiting the rise to 1.5. The deal comes in advance of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow that begins Monday.

Although the deal triggered a roar or approval from negotiators when it was reached, it is certain to face immediate skepticism from scientists who say that the largest emitters still are not doing enough. Some experts — as well as Alok Sharma, the president of COP26 — had challenged G-20 countries to commit to consigning coal to history, calling its use “incompatible with a future that keeps [the goal of] 1.5 alive.”

The lack of a pledge to phase out domestic coal use could reflect the the interests of China and India, two major fossil fuel users. According to Our World in Data, both China and India get more than 50 percent of their energy from coal. The United States depends on coal for about 12 percent of its primary energy, and the figure is similar in Europe.

An official from one of the G-20 governments, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the agreement, said that it had the right intent — to limit warming to 1.5 degrees — but lacked the substance to make that goal more realistic. A series of scientific reports has made it clear that countries are already far behind the pace needed to reach the goals set out in the Paris climate accord.

Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, called the G-20 agreement “weak” and said it “simply failed to meet the moment.”

“If the G20 was a dress rehearsal for COP26, then world leaders fluffed their lines,” she said in a statement.

Alex Scott, who follows climate diplomacy for the energy think tank E3G, said the G-20 deal, though short on specifics, showed that rich countries are in consensus about the danger of failing to act. That contrasts with two years earlier, during a G-20 summit attended by former president Donald Trump in Japan, where one of the main tension points was whether the leaders would even address the subject of climate.

This year’s G-20 agreement “doesn’t provide the timeline or specifics,” Scott said. “However, it does set leaders up with an expectation that they’ll come to the Glasgow COP and put some meat on the bones.”

As wealthy nations back Yellen’s call for global taxation, fears about national differences quietly persist

By Jeff Stein9:28 a.m.

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ROME — Standing outside the Salone delle Fontane Friday morning, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire proclaimed the dawn of a new age for international taxation — one in which governments would band together to stop multinational corporation from driving tax rates ever lower.

“It is clearly a revolution in the international taxation system,” Le Maire said, speaking to reporters shortly before a meeting between President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron. Implementation of the measure will “be at the core of the French [European Union] presidency,” which starts next year, Le Maire said.

But beneath the public professions of cooperation at the “Group of 20” meetings, doubts persist over the lingering divisions between nations that could undermine the pact’s effectiveness and scope.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has made the new minimum tax on corporations among the top priorities of her tenure, aiming to reverse a decades-long decline in the amount of revenue governments are raising from large firms and crackdown on tax havens. She has called the effort essential to funding government services like health care and public infrastructure, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Failure to arrest the decline in corporate taxation, Yellen has warned, could starve governments of badly needed revenue while allowing the power of large multinational firms to grow dangerously unchecked.

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Biden, European Commission president laud deal to lift tariffs

By Sarah Parnass8:59 a.m.

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President Biden spoke to reporters at the Group of 20 summit in Rome on Oct. 31. (The Washington Post)

President Biden spoke to reporters alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressing a deal with European Union officials his administration announced on Saturday. Biden said the U.S. and E.U. are “ushering in a new era of cooperation.” He did not take questions.

Climate politics have shifted, and that gives scientists and activists hope

By Karla Adam and Reis Thebault8:27 a.m.

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GLASGOW, Scotland — An aura of failure hung over the first United Nations climate status conference in Berlin in 1995. Not only were countries falling short of their commitments to curb emissions, but advocates were struggling to get climate change any attention at all on the international political agenda. Most of the world didn’t feel the urgency. And the fossil fuel industry was campaigning hard to encourage doubt.

A sense of failure is similarly clouding the 26th edition of that meeting, COP26 in Glasgow next month. Most countries are far from fulfilling their pledges. The earth has continued to warm, with disastrous consequences. And tensions between some of the central players, including the United States and China, have diminished expectations of what can be accomplished.

But there is a key difference between 1995 and now — a difference that gives some climate scientists and activists hope.

In many countries, there has been a shift in the politics of climate change. Green parties, once written off as fringe activists, are winning over larger shares of the electorate. Green ideas have also gone mainstream, with candidates from across the political spectrum portraying themselves as friends of the climate. And citizens have begun to vote with climate on their minds.

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Prince Charles, climate activist, tells G-20: ‘The future of humanity and nature herself are at stake’

By William Booth7:24 a.m.

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Prince Charles told world leaders at the G-20 Summit in Rome that the global climate conference beginning Sunday in Glasgow was “the last chance saloon” to save the planet.

“We must now translate fine words into still finer actions,” the Duke of Wales said. “The future of humanity and nature herself are at stake.” Charles stressed the importance of bringing the power of the private sector to the task, “who are now more and more anxious to invest in the projects and new technologies that could establish a more rapid transition to sustainability.”

The prince said that the world’s top CEOs from every sector of the economy, “representing well over sixty trillion dollars of assets under management,” had joined his Sustainable Markets Initiative and are listening to shareholders and consumers “who are now demanding changes in the way businesses behave.”

The heir apparent to the British throne was invited to speak to the world leaders by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in recognition of his 50 years highlighting the environmental crisis wrought by climate change.

The 72-year-old royal told the G-20 to reflect on their “overwhelming responsibility to generations yet unborn.”

“It is impossible not to hear the despairing voices of young people who see you as the stewards of the planet, holding the viability of their future in your hands,” he said.

Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, canceled her planned attendance at the climate summit after the 95-year-old monarch was advised to rest by doctors. But appearing along with Charles will be his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; his son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; and his daughter-in-law Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

New Zealand pledges to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030

By Adela Suliman and Rachel Pannett7:20 a.m.

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New Zealand has pledged to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030, ramping up its green ambitions, its prime minister said in a Sunday announcement ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

“As a country surrounded by oceans and an economy reliant on our land we are not immune to the impact of climate change, so it’s critical we pull our weight,” Jacinda Ardern said in a statement.

“New Zealand’s enhanced contribution to the global effort to fight climate change now represents our fair share, and is in line with what’s needed if we are to avoid the worst impacts of global warming on New Zealand,” she added.

New Zealand’s previous target was to bring emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The 2015 Paris agreement, negotiated by almost 200 countries, committed signatories to keeping global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels” and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, many nations have since struggled to maintain their targets.

New Zealand’s climate minister James Shaw welcomed the news and called this decade “make or break for the planet.” He also said New Zealand would work with developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region to help them meet their own emissions goals.

However, some climate scientists have been skeptical. “Setting a target is easy. Meeting it is hard,” said Ralph Sims, an emeritus professor of sustainable energy and climate mitigation at New Zealand’s Massey University. Although he and others welcomed the more “ambitious” target, he warned that “the transition to a lower-carbon economy will not be easy.”

Biden expresses concerns to Turkey’s Erdogan about air-defense system

By Annie Linskey, Kareem Fahim and Seung Min Kim7:03 a.m.

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President Biden, in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit on Sunday, expressed “concerns” about Turkey’s acquisition of a sophisticated Russian-made air defense system, the White House said.

The Biden-Erdogan sit-down came amid rising tensions with the U.S. ally over threats to expel diplomats, including the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, and Ankara’s possession of the Russian S-400 missile system.

After the meeting, which lasted for roughly an hour, the White House said in a statement that Biden “underscored his desire to maintain constructive relations, expand areas of cooperation, and manage our disagreements effectively.”

In addition to his concerns about Turkey acquiring the Russian defense system, Biden “also emphasized the importance of strong democratic institutions, respect for human rights, and the rule of law for peace and prosperity” with Erdogan, the White House said.

In a brief photo opportunity ahead of the meeting, Biden declined to comment on the substance of his sit-down, telling reporters: “We’re planning to have a good conversation.”

A senior administration official who previewed the meeting to reporters on Saturday said the threats and the weapons systems would be discussed, in addition to issues related to Syria and Libya. Turkey’s desire to acquire American-made F16s will also be discussed, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomatic conversations.

Erdogan recently threatened to expel 10 ambassadors, including from the United States, France, Canada and the Netherlands, because their embassies signed a letter calling for the release of Osman Kavala, a philanthropist and civil society activist. Erdogan backed off the threat after the embassies released statements committing not to interfere in Turkey’s internal affairs.

The U.S. official said that if Erdogan had followed through, the bilateral meeting would have been in jeopardy. “I’m not actually even sure we would have had the meeting if he had gone ahead and expelled,” the official said.

“Certainly, the president will indicate that we need to find a way to avoid crises like that one going forward,” the official said about the threat. “Precipitous action is not going to benefit the U.S.-Turkey partnership and alliance.”

Erdogan said last week that he expected to meet Biden on the sidelines of the climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, rather than Rome, and that he would discuss issues related to Turkey’s suspension from the international program that builds the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet.

The United States removed Turkey from the program in 2019, after Ankara purchased the Russian air defense system, known as the S-400. Turkey has said it is owed $1.4 billion it paid for F-35s it was later blocked from buying.

Despite the recent tension, Biden and Erdogan were seen speaking several times Saturday. The two men chatted as leaders posed for the “family photo” of G-20 principals. Then they were seen huddling with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson just before the opening session of the summit.

Biden also had a “brief” meeting Saturday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the administration official said. It was an “opportunity” for Biden to speak with Scholz, who is trying to form a government and step in as Merkel’s successor.

Italy’s prime minister Draghi says it’s time to ‘act now’ on climate

By Chico Harlan6:43 a.m.

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Italy’s Prime Minister kicked off the second day of the G-20 summit, devoted to the topic of climate, by laying out the stakes within his first statements.

“Dear colleagues,” he began his introductory remarks, “the fight against climate change is the defining challenge of our times.”

He said it was time to “act now” by reorganizing economies and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Though the Paris agreement in 2015 set a target to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — while “pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5″ — Draghi said that aiming for the more ambitious of those two targets was still crucial.

“Some of us are asking why we move our goal post from 2 degrees to 1.5 degrees. Why? Because science says so,” Draghi said.

Scientists have said that limiting warming to the 1.5 Celsius mark, compared to preindustrial levels, is crucial to avoiding many catastrophic consequences of climate change. But a United Nations climate report from August suggested the world could hit the 1.5C threshold in a decade.

“The shift to clean energy is key to achieving the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “We can no longer postpone it.”

The morning session for Sunday was set to focus specifically on the role of the private sector in the fight against climate change, with the idea that any wholesale makeover of the global economy — driven by decarbonization — would also require vast private funding. Later in the day the leaders will also discuss climate change more broadly.

Because G-20 countries account for around 80 percent of global emissions, the summit in Rome has the chance create or thwart momentum for the conference in COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, where many of the leaders will be traveling next.

Key update