G-20 leaders' final statement offers few commitments on climate
Pledge to stop funding coal-fired plants abroad by year end but no dates for phasing out coal
ROME/GLASGOW: Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies agreed on a final statement yesterday that urges "meaningful and effective" action to limit global warming at 1.5 deg C but offers few concrete commitments.
The result of days of tough negotiation among diplomats leaves huge work to be done at a broader United Nations climate summit which began yesterday in Scotland, where most of the G-20 leaders were headed from Rome.
The G-20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for an estimated 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The final document says current national plans on how to curb emissions will have to be strengthened "if necessary" and makes no specific reference to 2050 as a date to achieve net zero carbon emissions.
"We recognise that the impacts of climate change at 1.5 deg C are much lower than at 2 deg C. Keeping 1.5 deg C within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries," the communique said.
The 1.5 deg C threshold is what UN experts say must be met to avoid a dramatic acceleration of extreme climate events such as droughts, storms and floods, and to reach it, they recommend that net zero emissions should be achieved by 2050.
The leaders recognised "the key relevance" of achieving net zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century. China, the world's biggest carbon emitter, has set a target date of 2060, and other large polluters such as India and Russia have also not committed to the 2050 target date.
CATASTROPHIC
UN experts say that even if current national plans are fully implemented, the world is headed for global warming of 2.7 deg C, with a catastrophic acceleration of events such as drought, storms and flooding.
The draft includes a pledge to halt financing of overseas coal-fired power generation by the end of this year, but set no date for phasing out coal power, promising to do so "as soon as possible".
They also set no date for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, saying they will endeavour to do so "over the medium term".
On methane, which has a more potent but less lasting impact than carbon dioxide on global warming, they watered down their wording from a previous draft.
The COP26 climate negotiations are the "last, best hope" to keep alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 deg C, said summit president Alok Sharma as he opened the meeting yesterday.
COP stands for Conference of the Parties. And the Glasgow meeting is the 26th.
The Glasgow gathering, which runs till Nov 12, comes as an accelerating onslaught of extreme weather events across the world underscores the devastating impacts of climate change from 150 years of burning fossil fuels.
"We know that our shared planet is changing for the worse," said Mr Sharma at the opening ceremony.
Experts warn that only transformative action in the next 10 years will help stave off far more cataclysmic impacts. And the warming of the planet did not pause for the Covid-19 pandemic, which delayed the UN meeting by a year.
COP26 inherits its central goal from the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw countries agree to cap global warming at "well below" 2 deg C above pre-industrial levels, and 1.5 deg C if possible.
That deal left many crucial details to be worked out, while emissions reductions remain woefully insufficient to avert global warming.
- REUTERS, AFP
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now