Justin Trudeau wrapped up two days at the G-20 leaders summit in Rome, which resulted in leaders agreeing global warming needs to be limited to under 1.5 degrees Celcius by the end of this century.
However, they could not agree to set specific deadlines for phasing out coal power before 2040 or getting to zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
The prime minister says he had hoped for a stronger and more ambitious agreement on climate change to come out of the meeting, known as COP26.
“There’s no question that Canada and a number of other countries would have liked stronger language and stronger commitments on the fight against climate change than others,” Trudeau said at his closing news conference. “But we did make significant progress on recognizing 1.5 degrees is the ambition we need to share.”
He also celebrated the recognition that phasing out coal and methane is critical to fighting climate change.
“While we aim to finish the fight against COVID-19, we must not lose sight of the existential threat posed by climate change. Canada has worked with our G20 partners to address global challenges, promote our shared values, and create jobs and opportunities for people in our countries,” he said. “Now, we join together again to call for accelerated action on tackling climate change, so we can build a cleaner, better world for the generations to come.”
Climate change was at the top of today’s @G20org agenda. We focused on how we can increase climate ambition during this critical decade – and what more we can do to phase out coal, reduce methane emissions, increase support for adaptation, and fund nature-based solutions.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 31, 2021
The leaders of China, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan were absent. That means one-quarter of the group sent ministers instead of their top decision-makers, which the Prime Minister says held back potential progress during the summit.
Regardless, he says Canada will continue to work with like-minded partners to come up with more ambitious goals.
During the Summit, Trudeau held bilateral meetings with leaders, including the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández.
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Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the U.N.’s climate change program, was a key architect behind the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Before the summit, she said the negotiations leading to the two-week conference in Scotland had not progressed enough to reach the U.N.’s goals of cutting global greenhouse emissions in half from current levels and securing $100 billion a year in climate aid from rich nations to poor ones.
Those goals probably won’t be hit for another two years, but that’s alright, Figueres told The Associated Press.
“From a science perspective, we’re still in time, even if we do it in two years,” Figueres said. “From a political perspective, it is a disappointment for many, and I understand. So I do not celebrate it, but I think that we have a responsibility to be honest and to really understand the complexity of what we’re doing here.”
Asked if that means the negotiations will end in failure, like the U.N.’s 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen, she said: “It’s not going to happen here. No, no, no. There’s actually been too much progress and too much has advanced for something like that.”