G20 leaders release final watered-down statement on climate commitments ahead of COP26

Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies agreed to a final statement on Sunday that calls for “meaningful and effective” action to limit global warming, but offers few concrete commitments.

The statement represents “half measures” rather than “concrete urgent action,” said one non-governmental organization.

The result of days of tough negotiations between diplomats leaves a huge work to be done at a broader UN climate summit in Scotland, where most G20 leaders will fly directly from Rome, and climate activists disappointed.

The stakes are huge, including the very survival of the Netherlands, the impact on economic livelihoods around the world, and the future stability of the global financial system.

The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for roughly 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“This was a time for the G20 to act with the responsibility they have as the largest emitters, but we only see half measures rather than concrete urgent actions,” said Friederike Roder, vice president of the advocacy group for sustainable development Global Citizen.

The final document says that current national plans on how to curb emissions will need to be strengthened “if necessary” and does not make any specific reference to 2050 as a date to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

“We recognize that the impacts of climate change at 1.5 ° C are much lower than at 2 ° C. Keeping 1.5 ° C within reach will require significant and effective action and commitment from all countries,” the statement said.

The 1.5 ° C threshold is what UN experts say must be met to avoid a dramatic acceleration of extreme weather events such as droughts, storms and floods, and to reach it they recommend that net zero emissions be reached by 2050.

Consequences of inaction

The leaders only recognized “the key relevance” of halting net emissions “by or around mid-century,” a phrase that removed the 2050 date seen in earlier versions of the final statement to make the goal less specific.

China, the world’s largest CO2 emitter, has set a 2060 target date, and other big polluters like India and Russia have also not committed to the 2050 target date.

UN experts say that even if current national plans are fully implemented, the world is headed for global warming of 2.7 ° C, with catastrophic consequences.

The final G20 declaration includes a commitment to halt funding for coal-fired power generation abroad by the end of this year, but did not set a date to phase out coal power, promising to do so “as soon as possible.”

This replaced a target set in an earlier draft of the final declaration to achieve it by the end of the 2030s, showing how strong the pushback is from some coal-dependent countries.

The G20 also did not set a date for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, saying they will aim to do so “in the medium term.”

On methane, which has a more powerful but less lasting impact than carbon dioxide on global warming, they softened their wording of an earlier draft that pledged to “strive to reduce our collective methane emissions significantly.”

The final statement simply recognizes that reducing methane emissions is “one of the fastest, most feasible, and most cost-effective ways to limit climate change.”

G20 sources said negotiations were difficult over so-called “climate finance,” which refers to a 2009 commitment by rich nations to provide $ 100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with change. climate.

They have not fulfilled the commitment, generating distrust and reluctance among some developing nations to accelerate their emission reductions.

“We recall and reaffirm the commitment made by developed countries, with the goal of jointly mobilizing USD 100 billion per year by 2020 and annually through 2025 to address the needs of developing countries,” says the G20 statement.

The leaders “underscore the importance of fully meeting that goal as soon as possible.”

World leaders will kick off COP26 on Monday with two days of speeches that could include some new emission reduction promises, before technical negotiators get down to business on the rules of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Any deal is likely to close hours or even days after the event’s end date on November 12.

(REUTERS)