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Italy's G20 Presidency aims better relations with Asean

On December 1st 2020, Italy took over from Saudi Arabia the G20 presidency, for the first time in its history. The main event of the presidency, namely the G20 Heads of State and Government Summit, will take place in Rome on October 30th and 31st 2021.

The Italian action plan and G20 strategy will be implemented through three policy basins, namely People, Planet and Prosperity. These three pillars bring together two major topics of the current efforts to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, making them even more interconnected, at the European and multilateral level: societies and the geopolitical consequences of climate change that have emerged.

Italy will be also the UK partner in organizing the COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. While the UK, from November 1st to 12th 2021, will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), Italy will kick off in Milan with a round of preparatory meetings, among them "Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition", and the Pre-COP Summit, with the goal of revamping and making the most, through the highest political ambition, of the Paris Agreement potential, undermined by Trump's withdrawal decision and by China predominance as a global actor.

Additionally, and very interestingly when looking at the current path of Green European politics, on January 1st 2021 Portugal will take the political lead of Europe through its 6 months presidency. Lisbon has already made clear that climate change and the green future of Europe will be key and fundamental in implementing Europe's recovery from the pandemic.

It is very predictable that Italy and Portugal, two EU member states from the Southern bank of Europe and already strongly hit by the financial and migration crises, will make the best of this opportunity to join their green interests and priorities to advance common goals and policy.

Considered all the above mentioned, it looks like 2021 will be a key year for Italy and the climate change dossier, between challenges deriving by being the most hit countries by the Covid19 pandemic and high ambitions at stake.

Italy will be playing simultaneously at three different levels: the national one, by framing the Covid-19 Recovery Plan around the ambitious goal of going more green; the European one, by fitting its objectives in those broader European ones as prompted by the Von der Leyen commission; the multilateral one, by dialoguing with all those global actors who are making of climate change a badly needed priority of action.

The multilateral basin circle perfectly includes the cooperation that Italy, as an individual state as well as a multilateral actor, has launched time ago with the Asean states and which saw its climax in September 2020 when Italy became a Development Partner of the Southern Asian nations.

This milestone has gone in line with European foreign policy priorities, with the EU adoption of a high-level dialogue for an enhanced cooperation on sustainability and climate goals and the signing of Free trade agreements with Vietnam and Singapore. With the signing, on December 1st 2020, of the Strategic Partnership between the European Union and Asean, bilateral longstanding relations are reinforced through a broader network based on trade, rules-based international order and multilateralism.

Italy has always followed and supported the Asean work at the governmental and multilateral level, especially in the field of culture, peacekeeping, fight against climate changes as well as sustainable development and connectivity. Its new status as Development Partner represents a crucial milestone to strengthen already existing cultural ties and to place itself as a credible economic and political interlocutor in the Asian region.

The aim is to build new and dynamic synergies in many fields where economic relations could only benefit through this partnership: as of today Italy is not among the first 20 partners of Asean and Asean countries are only 14th in Italian trading lists. However, there is a lot of economic potential if strongly politically backed up.

Five years are now since the Italian Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, visited Asean headquarters. Since then much have been done by Italian policy makers in order to strengthen Italy's relations with major Asian players and institutions. During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Asean countries and representative bodies expressed great solidarity towards Italy.

This cooperation, alongside with its relations with China and the G20 opportunity, would enable Italy to play a key role in putting together, as a EU member state and multilateral actor, European and global instances. Thanks to the fact that the current G20 troika is formed by Italy, Saudi Arabia and one Asean member, namely Indonesia, this could further strengthen many synergies through a longer-term approach and action plan, especially in the field of fight against climate change.

The Green dossier of course existed before the pandemic. Covid-19 has opened Italy's, as well as Europe's, pandora box by making emerge extraordinary challenges and limits like health sovereignty in extraordinary times. But, at the same time, it has accelerated some needed processes and put a different light on the opportunities deriving from joining strategically efforts and building together common synergies, like in the case of climate change and a new green start.

With the December adoption by the EU Council of the resolution to cut greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55 per cent by 2030 and the unanimity vote on the Recovery Fund and multiannual budget framework, Europe is now ready to kick off and to place itself among those international player fighting climate change. And Italy, in its G20 and COP26 role, will definitely follow.

Much also will depend on the nature and political heritage Italy has as a founding member of the EU. Thanks to Next generation EU plan, Italy will have at its disposal 196 billion of which 123 will go to green politics and digital transition, with an estimation of GDP growth of 2.5 per cent in 2021-2023.

The Italian National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (NPRR) is not a pure list of targets and goal: it sets the basis for Italy's medium-long term objectives and for its role as a responsible social and climate multilateral player. Among its 6 missions, the green transition is strongly interconnected to the other 5, namely healthcare; social, gender, and territorial equality; digitalisation, innovation, and competitiveness; infrastructure for mobility; education, training, research and culture.

Decarbonization is also playing a major role in Italy's green plans to cooperate at the multilateral level: the Comprehensive National Plan for Energy and Environment 2030, approved in 2019, has marked the launch of a new phase for Italian environmental policies and climate neutrality.

The decarbonization process in Italy occurs within the framework of the so-called "Piano Nazionale Integrato per l'Energia e il Clima 2030", it marks the beginning of an important evolution in Italian energetic and environmental policies. Italy is fully committed to European plans on climate neutrality and the decarbonization of industries and the enhancement of sustainable mobility will be pivotal in guiding Italy's, as well as Europe's action as well as to fight energy poverty and guaranty energy security.

The Green prioritization, is not confined purely at the governmental and multilateral level: Italian citizens look at it with great attention. According to recent survey published by the European Investment Bank, the Covid-19 pandemic has definitively influenced European citizens perception of their green future.

The fight against climate change is a crucial challenge which needs to be combined with the recovery from the pandemic: the 57 per cent of Europeans think that the economic recovery cannot take place without considering seriously the climate dossier and 66 per cent that the European Union is leading on this.

Looking at numbers on Italy, 60 per cent of Italians think that the government should re-orient its economy recovery taking into account climate action; 80 per cent of Italian respondents would be in favour of stricter government measures to tackle climate change.

All these numbers show how society is ready for a climate action and really wants an institutional and comprehensive approach to target all the challenges deriving from climate change. A stronger coordination at the multilateral level would be the perfect basket where to coordinate on the green challenge as well as on other dossier which are all interconnected.

This is why an enhanced partnership between Asean and Italy, especially during the Italian G20 presidency, is a unique opportunity to lay the basis for a long-term constructive approach.

The writer is Program Manager, Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations


The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times

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