Deputy Minister Manlio Di Stefano met today, on the sidelines of the OECD Ministerial Council in Paris, with the UK Vice Minister for Asia, Amanda Milling.
The main topic was the environment-climate, in the wake of the conclusion of the events chaired by Italy in Milan (Youth4Climate and Pre-CoP 26) and on the eve of the launch of CoP26 in Glasgow, from 1 to 12 November.
During the meeting, Deputy Minister Di Stefano stressed Italy’s position at the forefront in implementing the Paris agreements on climate change and, in line with the approach adopted during the current G20 Presidency, its commitment to promoting a model of development centred on respect for the environment, as pursued in recent months through intense political and diplomatic efforts, from the G20 Ministerial in Naples last July to the Youth4Climate that preceded the work of the Milan Pre-COP meeting last weekend. Three events that reaffirmed the Italian government’s concrete commitment to ecological transition at the international level.
“The green transition will be all the more effective and efficient the more commitments are undertaken according to a multilateral and mutually beneficial perspective,” the Deputy Minister said. “The major international fora, such as the forthcoming meeting in Glasgow, are therefore essential opportunities for discussion, in order to catalyse all common efforts and reach concrete agreements. We also agreed that, in the current context, it is essential to consider international trade policies as a lever to encourage raising ecological standards. Trade cannot be fair if either party does not value environmental protection.”
“We are therefore doing all we can,” the Deputy Minister continued, “to ensure that the Glasgow negotiations bring tangible results and ambitious, binding commitments on issues such as cutting and monitoring climate-changing emissions and multilateral economic support to green transition by developing countries.”
Regarding the Indo-Pacific region, in light of the recent AUKUS alliance, the Deputy Minister underlined the importance of the Atlantic Alliance as a community of democracies based on common values and interests and the full complementarity between European Defence and NATO.
