G20 presidency says mins failed to agree on climate communique

Energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 rich nations were unable to agree on the wording of a key climate change commitment in their final communique, Italy's Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said on Friday.

Cingolani told reporters that ministers meeting in southern Italy had failed to resolve two disputed points and that these would have to be passed on to G20 heads of state and government to decide.

He said negotiations with China, Russia and India had proved especially difficult, adding that one of the sticking points was the wording surrounding a 1.5-2 degree Celsius limit on global temperature increases that was set by the Paris Agreement.