UN Secretary-General António Guterres, at the opening of the climate summit in New York on Monday, September 23, warned against the imminent adverse effects of climate change. “If we do not change our way of life urgently, we will endanger life itself,” he stressed.

“Nature around the world is striking back with fury,” Guterres said, and recalled that the past five years, and July 2019 in particular, have been the hottest period on record. “Our heated earth is shrilling: ‘Stop,'” he continued. Glaciers are melting, the extent of deserts is increasing, drought is leading to wildfires, heat waves are getting worse, natural disasters are becoming more frequent, the UN secretary general noted, and stressed that the goal of the summit is not to negotiate, because you can’t negotiate with nature, but to act.

195 countries of the world present their plans on climate protection

Representatives of 195 countries of the world take part in the climate summit. They are presenting their climate protection plans for the coming years related to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Its main goal is to prevent a global temperature increase in the current century above 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. As of September 2019, 186 countries have joined the agreement.

The conference brings together world leaders, members of governments, finance, business, and civil society.

Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg at the UN summit

Even U.S. President Donald Trump showed up in the room where the U.N. climate summit is taking place, even though he had previously said he had no intention of attending the conference.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who spearheaded the broad youth climate movement Fridays For Future, made an angry speech in front of the crowd. She accused older generations of failing to make decisions to prevent a global climate catastrophe. “We are on the brink of mass death, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales and perpetual economic growth,” Tunberg stressed.

Speaking shortly after the Swedish girl, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had heard the call of younger generations. In a short address, she reiterated the willingness of the government she leads to take the necessary decisions to save the climate.

Germany will allocate 250 million euros to save rainforests

German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller and World Bank President David Melpas agreed at the climate summit to implement the ProGreen Program for saving the Amazonian and African rainforests and fighting illegal logging. Within its framework, Germany intends to invest 200 million euros, and in total it is to raise one billion dollars.

Berlin will also give 20 million euros to support indigenous people in need of forest protection and 30 million euros to the Central African Forest Initiative. Protecting forests is necessary for “the survival of all of us,” Merkel said at a summit meeting on fires in the Amazon rainforest.



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The main topics of the summit are announced to be the climate, the consequences of the pandemic, vaccination campaigns and economic recovery.

U.S. President Joe Biden said that the G20 has made progress in combating the pandemic, economic recovery and climate issues.

“This has been a challenging year marked by enormous global challenges, of which pandemic, sustained economic recovery and combating the climate crisis are critical. I believe we have made tangible progress on each of these issues,” the United States leader said.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called combating climate change the greatest challenge of our time.

“The transition to clean energy is the key to achieving the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, we can no longer postpone it,” the Italian leader said.

Draghi noted that the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over, but vaccination campaigns have made it possible to “look to the future with more or some optimism.”

“Successful vaccination campaigns and coordinated action by governments and central banks have allowed the global economy to recover,” the prime minister added.

Meanwhile, the Italian leader noted that there is an unequal approach to the distribution of vaccines worldwide, with high income countries having 70% of those vaccinated with at least one dose, and poor countries with less than 3%.

“These disparities are morally unacceptable and undermine global economic recovery,” Draghi said.

Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the G20’s decision to scrap funding for coal power would accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

“Equally important is the fact that an agreement has been reached to stop financing coal power in the near future. China has taken an important step by joining the others. This means that the transition to other sources of energy will be much faster, here, in our view, gas should play a central role,” Merkel said.

According to the acting German chancellor, the G20 countries plan to discuss support for the use of gas also in the energy of African countries.

British Prince Charles, president of Britain’s World Wildlife Fund, said the upcoming COP26 climate summit (to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12) is the “last chance” to save the planet.

“We must turn our pretty words into pretty actions. The enormity of climate change dominates people’s conversations, from the news to their living rooms. The future of humanity and nature itself is at stake,” said Prince Charles.

He added that to reduce temperatures by 1.5 degrees annually, trillions of dollars of investment are needed to build the necessary infrastructure. But no government has that kind of money. That is why cooperation between the private and public sector is needed.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the G20 summit did not meet his expectations.

“Although I welcome the reaffirmation of the G20’s commitment to global solutions, I am leaving Rome with unfulfilled hopes – but at least they are not buried,” Gutteres wrote on Twitter.

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The two-day summit of G20 was held in Hangzhou, China, on Monday, September 5. Although the international financial system was formally the main topic of the meeting, most of the action did not take place on the sidelines of the gathering. Leaders met on the sidelines of the summit to address the political crises in the world. However, even these informal meetings were largely inconclusive.

As a result, some of the most discussed details of the summit were mishaps, such as President Obama not stepping on the plane, or Putin giving the Chinese leader ice cream – or British Prime Minister Theresa May forgetting to shake hands with the Russian president during their first face-to-face meeting.

Washington and Beijing are ready to improve the climate

The most substantive outcome of the Hangzhou summit was presented even before the event opened. Upon arrival at the summit, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama announced the ratification of the Paris climate agreement. China and the United States are the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases causing global warming. Both countries account for about 40% of all emissions. The Paris Agreement stipulates states’ obligations to reduce emissions. It will come into force after being approved by at least 55 countries responsible for 55% of global emissions.

Merkel sees Erdogan for first time since coup in Turkey

Shortly before the opening of the Hangzhou summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held an informal meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was their first meeting since Ankara’s verbal spats with European leaders following a wave of mass arrests in Turkey after the failed coup. They discussed relations between the two countries, further implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement on refugees and the ongoing conflict in Syria. The talks, according to a German government spokesman, were productive – but no more.

Putin’s talks

Vladimir Putin tried to hold as many bilateral meetings as possible. With Angela Merkel, they discussed “very specifically” the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the war in Syria and the humanitarian situation in Aleppo in Syria, said Steffen Seibert, a German government spokesman.

Putin also spoke with his French counterpart François Hollande, after which he announced that the Normandy quartet would meet in Paris in October to discuss again the implementation of the Minsk agreements. And during the conversation between the Russian president and Erdogan, the issue of Moscow lifting the food embargo on Turkish products was raised. In addition, the two sides have moved closer to a free trade agreement.

And a little bit of economics.

In any case, this summit could not do without the profile theme of economy. The G-20 promised to ratify an agreement on simplification of international trade procedures by the end of the year, supported the reform of the World Bank quotas and the inclusion of the yuan in the IMF reserve currency.

Finally, the final communiqué agreed on nine key areas of structural reform: promoting openness to trade and investment; promoting labor market reforms, improving education and skills; promoting innovation; improving infrastructure; promoting competition and creating a business-friendly environment; improving and strengthening the financial system; promoting fiscal reforms; increasing environmental sustainability; and promoting inclusive growth.

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