By Gavin Jones

ROME (Reuters), – The leaders of the Group 20 largest economies meet for a second day’s talks Sunday. They are faced with the daunting task of bridging differences about how to fight global warming in advance of a critical United Nations climate summit.

Day one of Rome’s summit was the first meeting of leaders since the outbreak of COVID. It focuses mainly on the health and economy. Sunday is all about climate and environment.

Scientists and activists concerned about climate change will likely be disappointed unless they make late breakthroughs. The final draft of the G20 communique showed little promise of any new commitments.

G20, Brazil, China India, Germany, and the United States account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists believe this must be drastically reduced to prevent climate disaster.

Because of this, the gathering will serve as a steppingstone to UN’s “COP26”, climate summit that is attended by more than 200 countries. The event will be held in Glasgow (Scotland), where many G20 leaders will fly from Rome.

Oscar Soria, an activist from Avaaz said that “the latest reports are disappointing” and that there is little urgency when faced with an existential crisis. “We don’t need to continue making vague wish-lists. We require concrete commitments and actions.”

Reuters saw the fifth version of G20’s last statement on Saturday. It did not tighten language about climate action compared to previous versions. However, in key areas such as net zero emission by 2050 it eased it.

The United Nations has set a mid-century deadline to achieve global temperature control at 1.5 degree Celsius. It is the goal to stop extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, and storms, from increasing.

Experts from the U.N. say that even if all national emissions reduction plans are implemented fully, global warming is likely to reach 2.7C.

China, the planet’s most significant carbon emitter, has set a goal for net zero by 2060. Russia and India are also major polluters, but they have yet to commit to the mid century deadline.

G20 energy and environment ministers who met in Naples in July failed to reach agreement on setting a date to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and end coal power https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-un-coal-demand-idAFL4N2RI1DL, asking the leaders to find a resolution at this weekend’s summit.

According to the most recent draft they made very little progress. They pledged to do their best to stop the construction of new coal-powered plants by the 2030s, and that they would phase out subsidies for fossil fuels “over the medium-term.”

They do however promise to stop financing overseas coal-fired energy generation by the end this year.

Some developing nations are reluctant about committing to drastic emissions cuts until rich countries fulfill their 12-year-old pledge of $100 billion per annum starting in 2020, to address the impacts of global warming.

This promise was not kept and contributes to the mistrust that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated Friday as a stumbling block in progress on climate negotiations.

Draft stresses importance of meeting goal and communicating it clearly.