G20 summit ‘gets results’ despite Trump’s climate change stance

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DAVID MCHUGH

Police stand behind a burning barricade in the ‘Schanzenviertel’ area, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg.

Paris deal; and a third paragraph in which the other 19 members reaffirmed their support for the deal.

The results of the summit are not absolutely decisive, on either the trade or the climate issue.

The no-protection pledge was often violated, increasingly in harder-to-detect ways such as tax breaks for home industries rather than obvious import taxes.

Meanwhile, failure to agree on climate does not stop countries from moving ahead in meeting the Paris agreement’s goals, or exceed them if they want to.

Additionally, US states and private companies can pursue lower emissions on their own.

G20 agreements are statements of intent and rely on governments themselves to follow through.

Other deals at the summit included an agreement to press internet providers to detect and remove extremist content as a

way of fighting terrorist incitement and recruiting.

John Kirton, co-director of the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, called the summit a “very solid success”, pointing to broad agreement on the agenda, much of it focusing on less controversial issues.

The meetings competed for attention with rioting by anti-capitalist demonstrators outside the heavily secured Hamburg Messe convention centre.

Rioters set up street barricades, looted supermarkets and attacked police with catapults and firebombs.

Around 186 protesters were arrested, even after G20 leaders had left the city. Cars were torched, stores looted, bikes burned in street barricades and windows smashed during the three days of violence. Some 476 officers were injured.

German police again used water cannon against rioters who attacked them with

iron rods and stones ripped from pavements. Apart from the arrests, police detained another 225 people temporarily.

Foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel condemned the violence and said a Europe-wide investigative team should search for suspects.

He added: “Germany’s reputation is severely affected internationally by the events in Hamburg.”

The city’s police chief, Ralf Meyer, said he was proud of the 20,000 officers who managed to provide security for the many international leaders and their delegations.

But it was deplorable so many of the officers were injured and that the violent riots could not be prevented, he added.

The city’s interior minister, Andy Grote, said “We had to deal – detached from the actual events at the summit – with ruthless acts of violence by criminals.”

The overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands who took to the streets protested peacefully.