Rome, The leaders of the world’s richest economies will spend today trying to reach a meaningful deal on preventing climate change.

The G20 is hoping to make progress ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, which begins later today.

However, they have yet to announce any firm new commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the coming years.

The G20 group, made up of 19 countries and the European Union, accounts for 80% of the world’s emissions.

The first day of the summit, being held in Rome, Italy, focused on Covid and the economy, with an agreement being reached on a global tax rate which will see the profits of large businesses taxed at least 15%.

It follows concern that multinational companies are re-routing their profits through low tax jurisdictions

Today is dedicated to discussions on climate, with Britain’s Prince Charles addressing the group.

He urged the leaders to take action “for the sake of humanity”, but acknowledged with the costs for new infrastructure likely to spiral into “trillions of dollars” it needed both government and the private sector to work in tandem.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi who is hosting the event went on to call on his colleagues to accelerate phasing coal and investing in renewable energy while outlining long term goals.

However, reaching an agreement on how best to cut carbon emissions and to stop climate change getting worse is proving difficult.

After years of talking, the planet is now at least 1.1C hotter than the pre-industrial level. Climate scientist want warming restricted to 1.5C to prevent climate catastrophe, BBC news reported.

Source: Oman News Agency