RIYADH: Finance officials from the world’s 20 biggest economies (G20) meeting in Riyadh on Sunday reached agreement on the wording of a final communique that includes a reference to climate change for the first time, G20 diplomatic sources said.
Overcoming US objections, the compromise language retained a reference to work by the Financial Stability Board to examine the implications of climate change on financial stability, although it dropped climate change from its list of downside risks to global economic growth.
One of the sources said it was the first time a reference to climate change had been included in a G20 finance communique, even though it was removed from the top of the joint statement.
G20 finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in the Saudi capital to discuss top global economic challenges, including the spread of the new coronavirus.
G20 officials completed work on the communique on Sunday morning. The final wording was not immediately available.
Delegates worked out a compromise after Washington objected to the initial proposed language, which had included “macroeconomic risk related to environmental stability” in a list of downside risks, two G20 diplomatic sources said.
The communique forecasts a modest pick-up in global growth this year and next, but cites downside risks to this outlook stemming from geopolitical and remaining trade tensions and policy uncertainty.
G20 agrees final communique with reference to climate change
https://arab.news/8yapt
G20 agrees final communique with reference to climate change
- One of the sources said it was the first time a reference to climate change had been included in a G20 finance communique
- G20 officials completed work on the communique on Sunday morning
Coast Guard rescue 52 migrants off Greece, boy missing
- They found 13 migrants who had arrived on the small, uninhabited island
- Another 39 migrants were found on board an inflatable boat off the southern island of Crete
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were searching Thursday for a missing child off the island of Farmakonisi after rescuing 52 migrants in two separate incidents in the Aegean Sea, local media reported.
They found 13 migrants who had arrived on the small, uninhabited island, but one boy was reported missing from the group, said the ANA news agency.
Another 39 migrants were found on board an inflatable boat off the southern island of Crete, according to the same source. They were taken to the village of Kaloi Limenes in Crete. No details about their nationality were provided.
Two coast guard vessels and an airforce helicopter were deployed for the operation off Farmakonisi, opposite the Turkish coast.
Many migrants try to reach the Greek islands from Turkiye or Libya as a way of entering the European Union. But both crossings are perilous.
Earlier this month, 17 people were found dead in a migrant boat drifting off Crete. Another 15 people were reported missing. The vessel had set off from the Libyan port of Tobruk and most of those who died were from Sudan or Egypt.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
