TORONTO – All roads led to Italy for the 2-day G20 summit meeting this year. US President Joe Biden had to put on hold domestic issues just to be in Rome for this summit. Top of the agenda was climate change. Prince Charles addressed the leaders of attending countries. From Rome, participants proceeded to Glasgow, Scotland, for the UN COP26 meeting. In both meetings, activists ensured that their voices are heard by world leaders. These meetings are unique because Covid safety protocols are in place. I remember when G8-G20 was held in Toronto having experienced challenges covering the event. 

New Zealand set itself an ambitious reduction target Sunday with a pledge to halve its net greenhouse gas emission by 2030. G20 leaders fell short of achieving what some aimed for and the hope is that a breakthrough will be achieved in the current summit of COP 26. As Italian PM Mario Draghi, the G20 host, stated, “It’s easy to suggest difficult things. It’s very difficult to actually execute them.”. The new target announced as world leaders gather in Glasgow for critical COP26 summit on climate change is substantially lower than the previous ambitious goal of 0 per cent reduction set in the 2015 Paris agreement.

The 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change may be the most important global conference this year. Around 30,000 participants are expected to attend and discuss ways to address climate change.

This time, even poor countries like the Philippines are sending delegations to participate in the meetings. Young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Glasgow to raise the issue that empty promises do not hold water without delivery. Here in Toronto, Development and Peace will be joining political leaders, business and civil society organizations to a large rally on November 6 at Queens Park. It seems that the pandemic is taking a back seat for now.

Billie Eilish, global artist and environmentalist, teamed up with climate scientist to voice out her “urgent action”concern for climate change ahead of COP26 meetings. All country should take part, but some rich country would take more impact than the rest. The wealthiest and biggest worst polluters should take the lead. The announcement by China and Russia that their respective head of state – Xi and Putin  – would not attend COP 26 was a dramatic signal that these two countries would not be cooperating in any major initiative to combat climate change. COP26 was originally scheduled for 2020. The pandemic pushed it to 2021. I see this as a blessing. For one, if it had been held in 2020, the US president would have been Donald Trump who has cast doubts on the reality of global warming and even took steps in withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement.

Pic of the summit in Rome from Governo Italiano