Fight against Covid through the relaunch of a massive global vaccination campaign, establishment of the global minimum tax on multinationals, an agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and thus contain global warming.
These are the three main results brought home by the G20 summit hosted in Rome and defined by Prime Minister Mario Draghi as “a success”.
"What have we achieved? It is a successful summit in the sense of keeping our dreams alive,
commit ourselves to further measures, allocations of money, further promises of reductions. In recent months, emerging countries seemed to have no intention of taking
other commitments ", added the premier.
Here, in detail, are the major objectives achieved during the summit in the capital.
GLOBAL MINIMUM TAX - The global minimum tax on multinationals, approved by the leaders of the G20 at the Rome summit after years of negotiations, will particularly affect the giants of the web that have grown in recent years, from Amazon to Facebook.
World leaders have pledged to implement it by 2023, set in the OECD framework where it was signed by 136 out of 140 countries.
The tax will have a minimum rate of 15% on the profits of multinationals to prevent them from continuing to transfer their tax office to a country where the treatment is more favorable.
The agreement will also make it possible to re-attribute to countries around the world the benefits of over 125 billion dollars made by 100 multinational companies among the largest and most profitable in the world, underlines the OECD. And according to an independent study, the tax will generate at least $ 60 billion in revenue a year for the United States alone. The agreement is based on two pillars: the first provides that companies with revenues of over 20 billion euros can also be taxed in countries where consumption takes place. The second provides that countries hosting multinational headquarters can impose a minimum tax of at least 15% in each of the countries in which they operate.
FIGHT AGAINST COVID - "To help advance the goals of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, we will take initiatives to help increase the supply of vaccines and essential medical products and tools in developing countries and remove related supply and financing constraints ". This is what we read in the final document of the G20 in the part relating to the fight against the pandemic. "We will strengthen - the countries subscribe - strategies to support research and development, as well as to ensure their rapid and equitable production and distribution throughout the world"
G20 leaders will also strive to ensure timely, equitable and universal access to safe and effective vaccines, particularly to low- and middle-income countries, and by confirming the goal of vaccinating at least 40% of the world's population in 2021, and 70% by the end of 2022.
CLIMATE - Agreements have also been reached regarding climate and the fight against global warming . The agreement provides that the G20 countries remain "committed to the Paris agreement to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees and to continue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees".
In the final document, the leaders acknowledge "that the impacts of climate change at 1.5 ° C are much lower than at 2 ° C. Keeping the 1.5 ° C target close at hand will require meaningful and effective action and the commitment by all countries ".
"We are committed to significantly reducing our collective greenhouse gas emissions, taking into account national circumstances and respecting the commitments made by each country", the document continues.
The deadline for reaching the goal, however, is still vague. In fact, the 2050 deadline for zero emissions jumps from the agreement. Neutrality, it is specified, must be achieved "within or around the middle of the century".
The agreement also aims to suspend resources for coal plants.
Again, it is put in black and white, "we also recognize that methane emissions represent a significant contribution to climate change and we recognize, based on national circumstances, that its reduction may be one of the quickest, most feasible and economical ways to limit it" And "we will increase efforts to phase out and rationalize subsidies to inefficient fossil fuels in the medium term."
(Unioneonline / lf)
