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G20 Leaders Arriving In Rome; Biden Goes To G20 Without Domestic Agenda Deal; Chinese President Not Attending G20 In Person; COP26 Faces Daunting Task With Worsening Climate; Her Majesty's Health. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired October 30, 2021 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

It's now 10:00 am in Rome. The ceremony to open the G20 summit in Rome scheduled to begin this hour. This is the first time leaders have been able to meet face-to-face in more than two years with a whole agenda of critically important issues.

The Iran nuclear deal will be the focus of sideline talks today with the U.S., U.K., Germany and France. On Sunday the U.S. hosts events on the supply chain crisis. Biden then heads to Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26 climate conference.

CNN's Ben Wedeman and Kevin Liptak are in Rome.

Ben, big picture here, looking ahead to what's coming up, what are we expecting?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're expecting is a variety of subjects, including climate change, in a leadup to Monday's COP26 summit in Glasgow.

They're going to be discussing this question of a minimum global corporate tax to be imposed on companies around the world.

They're going to be discussing, as you said, the global supply chain crisis and the COVID -- rather, the coronavirus pandemic, which, of course, has paralyzed much of the world for the last two years.

And last year, they were -- these members of the G20 were unable to meet because of the pandemic. That was held, that summit was held, remotely, hosted by Saudi Arabia. They're talking about the possibility of setting up a global body to deal with perhaps the next pandemic that could be headed our way. So there's plenty on the plate.

Now the question is, can they agree on a concrete plan of action?

Keep in mind, this group of countries produces about 85 percent of the world's greenhouse gases and accounts for about 80 percent of world GDP. So if they can't agree on something, it's questionable how those participants, the approximately 100 leaders, who will be gathering in Glasgow on Monday, can agree on anything -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. And just for our viewers, the picture you're seeing next to Ben, those are live pictures as the leaders arrive there in Rome.

So Kevin, turning to President Biden. Specifically, much narrative here around this G20 has been around this idea of Biden having to heal rifts with allies, restore the very idea of American leadership around the world. I mean, that's a huge lift there for him. This is a subject you've written about.

So how does he go about actually doing that?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, he starts just by showing up. And the president is, of course, very committed to the idea of multilateralism. In his view, his presence at these summits, just the enthusiastic presence here at G20 in Rome, can go a long way. That's a major contrast to the former president, Donald Trump, who was often at these summits somewhat begrudgingly, before the summits, asking his aides whether he had to attend.

And his aides would say, yes, you got to go and he would go but many times create hassles for these leaders, create divisions. And President Biden is intent, of course, of doing the opposite of that.

What he's finding, I think, is it's easier said than done. When he was at the G7 summit in Cornwall, he came with the message that American leadership is back. And between then and now, all of these questions have thrown that into question, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, that allies said privately was handled poorly. They said they weren't consulted.

The White House said that's not true; they consulted them just fine. And then the rift with France over the nuclear submarines, that the president tried to smooth over yesterday with French president Emmanuel Macron.

Today, the president comes with three main items on his agenda; one, trying to secure an agreement for that global minimum tax. That is one of the main items he's been pressing on, with U.S. Secretary Janet Yellen over the past several months.

The second is energy prices; gas prices remain very high in the United States.

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LIPTAK: And the president wants to press energy producers to increase supply to try to get a handle on that. And the third is Iran, the Iran nuclear deal. This is one of those

issues that the president wants to distinguish himself from president Trump. He wants to re-enter the Iran deal but he's finding that, again, that's easier said than done. He'll be on the sidelines with leaders from the United Kingdom, Germany and France, the so-called E3 to get on the same page about going forward.

The U.S. has been going back and forth indirectly in talks that have been languishing since May or so, since the Iranian presidential election. The Iranians say they want to get back to the negotiating table in November but there's real skepticism in Washington about what their intentions are.

So the president wants to talk with his fellow leaders and see where to go from here. So the president wants to show he's back at the table, back talking. But we'll see how that goes.

There's, as you said, some skepticism with that. Certainly, President Biden is viewed a lot more favorably than president Trump. But he really needs to put some actions behind those words at the moment.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. As you say, the mood very different now than it was for his European tour in June.

Again, for our viewers, we're seeing various world leaders coming up and being greeted by the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi.

Ben, looking back on yesterday, Biden's two key meetings, I want to start with Biden's meeting with the French president Emmanuel Macron.

Do you get that the French president accepted his mea culpa over the submarine disaster, as they would see it?

WEDEMAN: I think fair to say, Kim, it was well received, Biden's admission that the whole affair was handled clumsily. But I think there's still unhappiness, perhaps even anger over the way the deal was dealt with, keeping in mind that France and Australia appeared to have concluded that $66 billion deal for diesel -- the sale of diesel submarines to Australia.

And suddenly, that deal was scrapped and it was replaced by a deal between the United States, the U.K. and Australia. So you know, the French reacted in a way that really underscored at the time how angry they were. They recalled their ambassador to Washington, something that has not happened between the two countries before.

Yesterday, President Biden went and met with president Macron on French territory, at the French embassy here in Rome. And the body language, the words he used certainly indicated that he's very eager to restore French-U.S. relations to what they were before.

But let's also keep in mind that the whole Afghanistan situation was also a source of unhappiness between Paris and Washington, as it was with most European capitals as well, not happy with the way the U.S. handled the whole affair, going back to the Trump administration, which basically had a unilateral agreement with the Taliban and then the implementation of that agreement was far from neat, shall we say.

But just to sum it up, yes, I think that perhaps some of the wrinkles have been ironed out between Paris and Washington. And time, perhaps, will iron out the rest of those wrinkles -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right.

And then, Kevin, the other big meeting there, Biden says, with the pope, it was unusually long.

What did you make of their meeting and the fact that it apparently touched on the political controversy of Biden's very standing as a Catholic?

LIPTAK: Yes. I think what was striking was the way that meeting sort of spans the political issues and the very personal issues. President Biden, of course, very devout Catholic, the second Catholic American president; goes to mass almost every week, once considered joining the priesthood himself.

And that really was evident in the meeting with Pope Francis. And you saw that in the sort of scattered images you saw coming out of their greetings. The president very talkative, very warm with Pope Francis. This was the fourth time they'd met. This was not the first time they met.

And the White House saying climate is one of the issues that the pope wants to talk about. He wanted to stress that the nation needs to do more to help nations cope.

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LIPTAK: COVID came up; the president didn't press Biden specifically to donate more vaccines but it was discussed, that again, wealthy nations have to help the poor nations to combat the pandemic.

But the main takeaway was what Biden said sort of offhand afterwards, that the pope told him that he was a good Catholic and that he should continue receiving communion. That was a reference to the dustup back in the United States, where conservative bishops are pressing to deny American politicians, who support abortion rights for women, they want to the deny them communion.

And the president said that essentially the pope was on the opposite side of that. So very personal, very long; it was 90 minutes, one-on- one. That's much longer than the pope generally meets with foreign leaders.

And what officials said afterwards, the president talked to them and they sort of briefed on it afterwards, they said. But it was just striking how much it meant to the president. And, of course, it would mean a lot to the president.

This is a pope that counseled the president after the death of his son, Beau, in 2015. They have kept in touch, sort of, they have met between now and then. And the president actually presented the pope with a coin that bore the insignia of his son's division in the Delaware National Guard, the military pact that he was in.

So a very personal meeting that touched on some other issues but really was more symbolic than any one issue.

BRUNHUBER: Seemingly a great rapport between the two.

I'd like to ask both of you, coming at it from different angles, whatever comes of the G20 and the COP26 conference, the elephant in the room is whether the U.S. commitments, whatever they might be in the end, are worth anything, given the sort of back and forth, hyperpolarized nature of U.S. politics.

They vacillate between Republicans and Democrats; they promise something and then pull their commitments.

How is that affecting the outlook there?

But I want to start with you, in terms of the international view on this.

WEDEMAN: Well, let's keep in mind that the G20 was begun to deal, was started to deal with the economic crises of the 1990s. And they didn't actually first meet until the late -- in 2008, dealing with another economic crisis.

The idea was to bring the world's major developed and developing economies together, as a united group, to deal with the challenges facing the world. But what we've seen since the late 1990s and certainly, since 2008, is that U.S. power has diminished, as the U.S. has become preoccupied with domestic politics.

As China has become an ever more important economic powerhouse in the world and, therefore, the dynamics are changing. And so, it is more difficult now, with competing polls, whether in the global economy, with politics, with some powers rising, some powers shrinking, how they will meet and get some sort of -- some point of consensus.

And that's going to be increasingly difficult, as you have so many diverse interests joined within this group. And as I said before, if this group of countries, which makes up the majority of the producers of greenhouse gases and the great majority of the world's GDP, cannot agree on the important issues facing the world, COP26 is going to be something of a bust, because, if the big powers and the big economies can't agree on anything, then the world as a whole is going to have a hard time as well.

So it's going to be a challenge. And as I said, with a changing world, a rapidly changing world, unity at this point and in confronting challenges is going to be difficult.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, but the U.S. may agree to something. But the question is whether they will stick with it.

Kevin, I'll ask you, how does Biden convince the world, then, that, you know, from the U.S. perspective, our word is our bond and it won't be broken by whoever controls the levers of power next? LIPTAK: Yes, it's very difficult. You talk about the Iran nuclear deals and the Paris climate accord. Those are all things that the former president withdrew from that this president wants to get back in.

There's no guarantee that the next president, whether it's Donald Trump or another Republican, won't just scrap the whole thing again and we are back to where we started really. And you saw this dynamic play out, this macro dynamic play out, in micro form, just before the president left for Rome and G20.

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LIPTAK: He was trying to convince the Democrats to unify behind this massive social spending bill that contains more than $500 billion for climate change. The president sort of told them, if he arrived in Rome without a deal, it would be embarrassing.

And he locked eyes with lawmakers in the Oval Office and told them that American prestige was on the line if they couldn't come together with an agreement. And they didn't yet.

There is a framework agreement but there hasn't been a vote yet. And this is all sort of illustrating the problems that the president has, even in convincing his own party, to get behind something that the world can look and say, American democracy is delivering for its people.

And that, in the end, is the underpinning the president's entire foreign policy, which is democracies must prove that they can deliver results for their people. And the president is trying to do that; certainly, he's trying.

And the White House says that they believe that foreign leaders are savvy enough to recognize that the president is trying and that he has political difficulties and they understand American politics; they're politicians themselves.

But in the end, the sort of messy negotiations and hyperpolarized American politics does have a way of bearing itself on the foreign stage. And the president is trying his best, of course, to get around that.

But with all of these things, there's a number of obstacles. And the president is finding that it's easier said than done to do a lot of these things. And he comes to this summit today, sort of to demonstrate that he's trying to do them but that he's not necessarily achieving them yet.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Listen, we'll have to leave it there for now. But we will hopefully bring you back later on in the show. Ben Wedeman and Kevin Liptak, appreciate your expertise and analysis, thanks so much.

Still ahead, we'll have much more on the opening moments of the G20 summit before the pandemic. You're seeing live pictures as leaders arrive and are greeted by the prime minister Mario Draghi. We will have much more on all of this coming up. Please do stay with us.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

BRUNHUBER: The G20 summit of the world's largest economies is now preparing to get down to work. You're seeing live pictures of leaders as they arrive there in Rome.

Now it's been more than two years since the group last met in person. And as I say, you're seeing them, being welcomed there by Italy's prime minister.

Over the next two days, the G20 will aim to come up with concrete action that's can be taken worldwide to reduce carbon emissions, distribute vaccines more fairly, unclog the global supply chain and much more.

And of the people that you'll be seeing coming up and meeting the prime minister there, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, one of the most noticeable absences from the G20. He won't be there. And he's not attending, opting to make an appearance via video link instead. David Culver joins me from Shanghai.

David, as you know, China, the biggest greenhouse gas emitter, putting about a quarter of it out there it's the largest coal user.

So I guess we can expect China to be a huge target of the various world leaders, maybe one of the reasons why President Xi chose to give the conferences a miss?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You would think, right, Kim, the possibility that everyone is going to be talking about you and your country and putting that pressure on you amongst the other world leaders, yes, perhaps a good reason to skip this one out.

But it also could be because there is another COVID outbreak here, particularly within the capital of Beijing. And in order to return to China, President Xi would have to do what everyone else does in Beijing, at least a 21 day quarantine. And so the reason he may not want to do that, he has a big party meeting in a few coming weeks.

That is worth noting because that suggests he is prioritizing what's happening domestically versus the international stage and that plays very well to an increasingly nationalistic audience.

But climate is going to be huge. So I think we make a mistake if we say they're not attending in person, Xi not being with the other world leaders, particularly when it continues onto COP26, is indicative of China falling short of any big promises. Sure, if you look at what they put forward as far as their pledges, it

does not meet what some of the other countries are doing. However, China, as experts pointed out to me multiple times, they will underpromise and overdeliver.

So that's possibly the route is here. Climate is a huge domestic authority as well. A few months ago, at the National People's Congress, President Xi Jinping stressed green is gold. And this isn't just rhetoric. I think what you have to see, they're looking at this from a national security perspective.

Securing energy is huge here. They're trying more to move off coal. More than 60 percent of this country is powered by coal and they're looking for green solutions and renewables. In fact, they're leading the world in wind and solar power, investing in manufacturing and rolling it out on a massive scale.

Now they've had their shortcomings and struggles. Just a few weeks ago, they tried to rein in the emissions and they had massive power outages. People trapped in elevators and places going dark. Folks were panicking as winter cold was moving in.

So they had to start up again some of the production lines, make sure they keep the energy flowing and that does mean relying still on coal. But they do intend to push forward with their targets.

And perhaps the targets aren't as ideal, as some would hope, but they could overdeliver on this. And that's what is widely expected, especially coming to COP26, to see China putting forward more promises. We don't know exactly what they will lay out but, whatever they do, they do on a massive scale.

And they tend to stick with it certainly because it benefits them domestically as well -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, we'll be watching to see what they do promise there.

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BRUNHUBER: David Culver in Shanghai, thanks so much.

And Russian president Vladimir Putin isn't showing up at the summit, either, but he's set to address the gathering by video link as well. Putin will speak as Russia begins a nationwide nonworking period to try to get a record COVID surge under control. For more on this, Sam Kiley joins us from Moscow.

Sam, first, let's start with the G20.

What are we expecting to hear from Putin?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Kim, he will address all of those issues, that the G20 has set itself up to look at, trying to get an equalized distribution -- or something closer to an equal distribution of COVID vaccines worldwide. Putin expected to say, by end of this year, they want 40 percent of

the population worldwide with access to vaccines, raised to 70 percent next year.

Also trying to perhaps deal with international mutual recognition between nations of the different vaccines. He's also going to be talking in broad terms about the need to raise up inequalities or try to deal with inequalities between the developing world and the developed world.

Kind of predictable stuff that is consistent with his efforts to appear a broad-brush, big-thinking figure on the international stage. But I think the reality is, there is a COVID problem here, Kim. The daily death tolls have broken records the last four days. We're just waiting for the latest figures to come out.

Yesterday was 1,168 deaths from COVID. The nation is going into the week-long compulsory, not quite stay at home but stay away from work and other stricter pieces of legislation here and there, depending on regional legislation or regional rules.

But ultimately, at the moment, in terms of the broader COP26 type agenda and a lot of this G20 being seen, certainly by the media, as a preliminary meeting ahead of COP26, this is a country that relies entirely on fossil fuels for its own needs and for a massive part of its economic force, in terms of exports, particularly at a time when it's enduring sanctions from the international community, notably, the European Union, over its illegal annexation of Crimea, Kim.

And it's those sorts of issues that really matter to Russia and particularly to Vladimir Putin. He hasn't really engaged with a green agenda. He's still trying to keep things very much on the geostrategic level, perhaps still in something of almost a Cold War mindset -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Sam Kiley, reporting to us from Moscow.

Well, when we come back, the start of the G20 summit in Rome. The first in-person get-together for world leaders in over two years. Please do stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: World leaders are arriving this hour for the start of the G20 summit in Rome. You're looking at live pictures as they're being officially welcomed by Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi. The Iran nuclear deal will be on the table when President Biden and the leaders of Germany and France and the U.K. meet on the sidelines in the coming hours. On Sunday, they meet on the supply chain crisis. Biden then hits to Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 conference. Let's bring in White House reporter Kevin Liptak.

Kevin, big picture, what are you expecting from Biden today?

LIPTAK: Well, he's got three big issues on his plate today. The first is trying to secure an agreement for this global minimum tax. It's something that he's been pushing for the last several months. He's been helped by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

They're basically trying to get countries to end the sort of race to the bottom on corporate tax rates, to embrace this 15 percent minimum corporate tax rate. They have had some success in that. And they do expect today, the president expects today that the G20 will sort of formally endorse this in their talks.

The second big agenda item for the president today is energy prices; of course, gas prices in the United States are rising. They're higher than they have been historically in a long time. And the president wants to talk to producers who are here at the G20 to increase supply. And that would help him politically, of course, in Americans' pocketbook back home.

And the third big issue is the Iran nuclear deal. The president is meeting on the sidelines with the heads of the United Kingdom, Germany and France to talk about the sort of slogging talks that have been ongoing about re-entering the nuclear deal. I'm told that German chancellor Angela Merkel called for the meeting.

And it's meant to get all the parties on the same page as the talks reach a point where they need to decide what to do really. They haven't convened the negotiations about the Iran nuclear deal in several months since the Iranian presidential election unfolded.

But Iran says it's ready to get back to the table at the end of the November. But there's skepticism in Washington about what their real intentions are. And they need to decide what to do next, whether they impose new sanctions on Iran, whether they let the talks proceed from however long they might proceed and see where it goes from there.

They really want to get on the same page; mostly, they just want the United Kingdom, Germany and France to sort of know what they're doing. There isn't a real takeaway, a deliverable they're expecting from the meeting. But they do want to sort of go into it and come out of it with a united front -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: You talked about a meeting with Boris Johnson; we just saw him come in and get greeted by Italy's prime minister, among many who have been trooping through here.

We just saw the president of the European Commission there a minute ago coming through.

So Kevin, Biden wanted a win coming in here to show off at the G20 in terms of getting his signature items passed by the Democrats. And Nancy Pelosi, they couldn't have been more stark with their warnings about what was at stake here, no less than his presidency on the line, according to the president himself.

How big of a blow was it that he couldn't get his own house in order at this meeting that was meant to project U.S. leadership to the world?

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LIPTAK: Well, it's a disappointment. I mean, these talks are not ending; this deal -- I mean, it seems like it is on track to pass at some point. But it was certainly a disappointment for the president, because he set this deadline for himself. He told lawmakers in the Oval Office over the last couple weeks that, if he didn't show up at the summit with a deal in hand, that American prestige was on the line.

And he showed up with what he claimed was a framework but not really a deal. There's still a lot of mistrust between the various factions of the American Democratic Party, between the progressives and more moderate senators.

And they don't expect a vote while he's here. The Congress doesn't return until he gets back. So it is a disappointment. The president has said repeatedly that democracies must deliver for their people. That's sort of the whole basis for his entire foreign policy as he tries to compete with China and other autocratic nations like Russia.

But when he comes to the summit and doesn't have a deal in hand, it raises questions whether he can coerce Democrats back home into agreeing to something. There will be a deal at some point, the social safety net in the United States will be expanded dramatically.

But it does show sort of the sausage making in all of this. It sort of demonstrates the increasing polarization in American politics, which foreign leaders see from abroad and look at skeptically and wonder if America can regain its standing on the global stage when things are so dysfunctional back home -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. And back home, real-world conditions for Americans have deteriorated which are, in part, I guess, responsible for Biden's sliding poll numbers. We're seeing, you know, slow growth, inflation, high gas numbers, supply chain shortages. So you alluded to this a little earlier.

But concretely, how is he hoping to address some of those issues here at the G20?

I just want to quickly, before you answer, note that we saw Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, coming in a minute ago, wearing a poppy there for Remembrance Day.

But, yes, how is he hoping to come up with something specific to deal with those things affecting Americans most back home?

LIPTAK: Well, on the energy issue specifically, the president does want to put pressure on producers like OPEC. At this point, it's not clear whether he'll speak directly to the Saudi representative at the G20. As of a couple days ago, the White House officials did not believe that the Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman would be at the G20.

And he has not come in with the specific levels, barrels of oil that he wants released. But he is making the point that producers have a responsibility to keep energy prices reasonable and increase the supply.

On the supply chain issue, that's sort of a topic that the president, of course, is very focused on. It's affecting everything back in the United States, whether it's imports from China; food prices have increased. And the president has actually convened a special session of the G20 tomorrow to address it.

There are a number of options on the president's plate to try and fix this. The one option that's been raised in the United States is calling in the National Guard and ask them to help break this gridlock.

But these are issues that are complex. There are many levels where things are getting clogged and things are backing up. The one major issue with all of this is one of the key players who could potentially assist in all of this, which would be China's Xi Jinping, who is not at these talks.

The White House has said that actually it's not a bad thing, necessarily. It actually presents an opportunity for countries like the United States and Europe to set the agenda.

But when China isn't here, there are all these issues that it has its hand in, whether it's climate, whether it's energy, whether it's supply chain issues, whether it's the economy, that they can't necessarily speak face-to-face.

BRUNHUBER: All right. So many issues to get a handle on there. Thanks so much for your analysis. We'll keep following this, of course, throughout the day, Kevin Liptak, thanks so much.

Demonstrators gathered in cities around the world, ahead of G20 and COP26 summits, to demand action on the climate crisis. In London, high-profile activist Greta Thunberg joined the protests against the financial institutions that fund climate producers. Scott McLean joins us from London.

As I said, Greta Thunberg was there.

What did she say?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, yes. She actually didn't say anything. She was sort of there, meeting the small number of climate campaigners that had shown up to chant outside of a bank to try to make their message heard. But she didn't speak to the crowd. She didn't get on a bullhorn or anything like this.

[04:40:00] MCLEAN: This is one of a small chain of protests held around the world, trying to convince the global banking system to divest from fossil fuel investments and not to fund any further fossil fuel developments for the sake of the climate.

The one in London focused specifically on Standard Chartered Bank and for its part, it says that it does have a climate change plan. It wants all of its -- pledging all of its investments by 2050 will be net carbon neutral. And also says it won't have any clients by 2030 that are more than 5 percent reliant on coal for their revenues.

Still for the climate campaigners, at that event, that was still not nearly enough -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: So the British, you know, they're hosting COP26, as we said. The U.N. secretary-general wasn't very rosy on the outlook, saying there's a serious risk that Glasgow will not deliver. So not a very optimistic outlook going into this pivotal event.

So are the British hosts confident that meaningful progress will come out of the summit?

MCLEAN: Not very. Here we are less than 48 hours before the COP26 begins in Scotland. And you have the spokesperson for the prime minister, saying the success of that summit very much hangs in the balance, saying, yes, there has been some progress in getting some countries to pledge a little bit more, to pledge to be carbon neutral decades from now.

But the reality is that things need to happen much, much quicker. And those pledges need to get a heck of a lot more ambitious in order to keep global temp rises below 1.5. The British government believes you have to have greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in order to stay under that threshold.

The prime minister has been quite blunt in the past couple of weeks about what he thinks the chances of success at Glasgow are. This is what he said earlier this week. Listen.

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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: It will be very tough this summit and I'm very worried because it might go wrong and we may not get the agreements we need, it's touch and go.

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MCLEAN: Now one of the countries that he really needs to convince is China. China alone is responsible for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Now Johnson spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the phone yesterday. And climate change, of course, was one of the issues that they discussed.

But there are no public signals that China plans to announce any significant changes or any more ambitious goals than the very modest climate change targets that it's announced already. Kim. BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll keep watching, thanks so much, Scott

McLean, really appreciate that.

And we're watching world leaders arrive at the G20 summit in Rome. We're going to show you some live pictures of that. In the last few minutes, we have seen the leaders of Australia, Spain, U.K., Canada, India, just to name a few. And we're waiting for President Biden to arrive. Our coverage continues in a moment. Please do stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, you're watching live pictures from Rome, as world leaders are arriving this hour for the start of the G20 summit. You should be able to see their cars pulling up and then they go down a little red carpet. And they're being officially welcomed by the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi.

Well, it's the answer to the prayers of many parents. The COVID vaccine for young children could be just days away, after the FDA's approval of the Pfizer vaccine in 5- to 11-year olds. They're one-step closer to getting that vital protection. CNN's Nick Watt has details.

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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pfizer can start shipping vaccine doses for those younger kids 5 to 11 because the FDA just granted emergency use authorization. There could be shots in little arms as soon as Wednesday, if the CDC green-lights.

DR. WILLIAM GRUBER, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PFIZER VACCINE CLINICAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: This is a great day for the health and well- being of children.

WATT: Vaccine mandates for older folks are the hot-button issue right now. Florida's governor just filed suit to halt an upcoming mandate for federal contractors.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Many people have recovered from COVID and also have strong immunity through prior infection.

WATT: A CDC study of 7,000 people hospitalized with COVID-like illness published at lunchtime states, we now have additional evidence that reaffirms the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, even if you have had prior infection. Vaccination can provide a higher, more robust and more consistent level of immunity.

In Rhode Island, a mandate kicks in for state health workers Sunday. There are holdouts.

GOV. DANIEL MCKEE (D-RI): We'll work on other plans to activate strategies, including the National Guard if necessary.

WATT: In Iowa, lawmakers passed a bill granting unemployment benefits to anyone fired for failing to get a shot. And in Oakland, California, the school board voted to un-enroll currently eligible but unvaccinated kids come January 1 or teach them online only.

Now I just want to underline this Pfizer vaccine could be the first vaccine rolled out in this country for kids as young as 5.

So what happens next?

Those CDC advisers meet on Tuesday. If they are in favor, then it goes to the CDC director. And if she green lights, then we could be seeing shots in those little arms Wednesday morning.

It is important to note, the kids' dose is one-third of the dose that is being stuck into older people -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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BRUNHUBER: And as we mentioned, world leaders are arriving for the G20 summit in Rome. We're going to pop up more live pictures as they arrive.

In the last five or 10 minutes or so, we saw Boris Johnson from the U.K., Canada's Justin Trudeau; Angela Merkel was there. China's foreign minister arrived. But of course, Xi Jinping will not be there in person.

And Turkey's Erdogan is here, Recep Tayyip Erdogan just doing up his jacket. He'll be greeted by Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, one of the many world leaders who will be here for the G20. We're going to keep following this throughout the day. We'll come back in a moment. Please do stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The G20 summit of the world's largest economies is now preparing to get down to work. You see live pictures there. It's been more than two years since the group last met in person. Right now, the members are officially being welcomed as they come in.

Queen Elizabeth's doctor-ordered rest period will go on weeks longer than expected. Buckingham Palace said that the monarch was told not to undertake any official visits and to rest for at least two weeks. The palace is being quite tightlipped about the exact nature of her condition. CNN's Max Foster has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: The queen has been ordered to stay at home by her medics, according to a Buckingham Palace statement, Her Majesty's doctors have advised that she should continue to rest for at least the next 2 weeks.

That could continue depending on medical advice, in theory. We are not being told specifically what medical condition she could be suffering from. We are told by the palace that is a matter of patient confidentiality.

The statement continues, the doctors have advised that the monarch can continue to undertake light desk-based duties.

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FOSTER: Including some virtual audiences. We have seen her carrying out video calls over the last couple of weeks and she has looked pretty well.

A royal source told CNN that the queen remains in good spirits and continues light duties. This is a sensible precaution from her medics. A key event that she had to cancel was the upcoming COP26 summit. She was hosting a reception there for world leaders.

We were told on Friday that she did record a message for the reception. So she was well enough to do that. This is a situation where the palace is aware that people may be concerned about the queen's condition. But they are trying to calm nerves at the same time -- Max Foster, CNN, Hampshire.

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BRUNHUBER: And we're putting up live pictures of the G20 as leaders are arriving now. We saw South Korea's leader there; Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro; we had German chancellor Angela Merkel; U.K.'s Boris Johnson; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Of course, this is the first in person meeting for two years. And, you know, dealing with many issues; most prominent, of course, will be climate change. We're expecting President Biden to arrive any minute.

Of course, the U.S. will be hosting sideline talks today between the U.S., U.K., Germany and France. They're just meeting with the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, there. They're all coming in and greeting each other.

I think that is all we have. I think that is all we have. I can't quite hear the count. But I think that's we're going to -- we're going to leave it on the pictures here, live from Rome.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. I really appreciate you spending your day with me. We have CNN special coverage of the G20 summit continuing, with "NEW DAY" next.