Leaders of the G20 world's major economies approved a global minimum tax on the largest companies on Saturday, but were still haggling over the pressing issue of climate change.
In the first major announcement of the two-day G20 summit in Rome, the bloc endorsed a "historic" agreement that would see multinationals subject to a minimum 15 percent tax, said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who attended the talks.The reform plan, already backed by almost 140 countries, seeks to end the practice of big corporates such as Apple and Google parent Alphabet of sheltering profits in low-tax countries.
At a gala dinner at his lavish Qurinale palace on Saturday evening, Italian President Sergio Mattarella urged leaders to act for the sake of "future generations". Hosts Italy are pushing the G20 to collectively endorse the UN goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, one of the aspirations of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accords."From the pandemic, to climate change, to fair and equitable taxation, going it alone is simply not an option," Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told leaders ahead of the closed-door talks.
He met with his French, British and German counterparts to discuss Iran's offer to resume discussions on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, and they expressed their "grave and growing concern" over Tehran's nuclear programme. Another key topic in Rome is the coronavirus pandemic, with both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin raising the issue of the unequal global distribution of vaccines.
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