Mario Draghi called the G20 summit just concluded a “success”. Beyond the de minimis agreement reached in Rome on the climate and now under consideration by COP26 or the decisive agreement on the removal by the US of tariffs on steel and the confirmation of the Global tax on multinationals, there is no doubt that the “success” was above all his. Not only for the public recognition by the main world leaders of the Italian premier but because Draghi confirmed (if anyone still had doubts) his political capacity in managing complex situations by listening to allies but above all to his opponents, trying to also understand their point of view and assuming that the solution can only come by involving and not excluding.
The doctrine of multilateralism
He did so as a central banker, prime minister and president of the G20. It is what is called the doctrine of multilateralism of which Angela Merkel has been the main interpreter for over a decade and which now Mario Draghi declines according to its peculiarities, always aiming to obtain a compromise that has a tangible confirmation and can be implemented. . Getting China and Russia as well as India and Turkey to accept the +1.5 ° overheating threshold was not taken for granted.
Point of no return
Obviously, the lack of agreement on the date of the end of the emissions makes that commitment incomplete. The US and Europe are aiming for no later than 2050, China and Russia (but also India) are looking to 2060, but having indicated “within or around the middle of the century” is a first step that is not without consequences. China still produces a lot, a lot from coal and therefore the “transition” is very burdensome and expensive. But for the first time everyone is aware, even in the most polluting countries, that we are at a point of no return.
Effects that are meant to last
“We have a common ambition that wasn’t there before,” Draghi summed up. Covid certainly taught a lesson. That symbolic photo of the leaders with doctors and nurses is emblematic and historic as well as the resources made available to implement the vaccination campaign in the poorest areas. And certainly it is no coincidence that among the most secluded leaders and with a completely empty book of bilateral meetings there was the president of Brazil, the denier, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, who will have the only meeting the secretary of the Lega Matteo Salvini. Draghi meanwhile flew to Glascow to attend the UN Conference. But the effects of the success achieved at the G20 are destined to go well beyond the Rome summit as well as its role within and beyond national borders.