G20 leaders offer new on climate, UN chief’s hopes ‘unfulfilled’

Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies agreed on a final statement on Sunday that urged meaningful and effective action to limit global warming but offered few concrete commitments and disappointed climate activists.

The result of days of tough negotiation among diplomats leaves huge work to be done at a broader UN COP26 climate summit in Scotland, where most of the G20 leaders will fly directly from Rome.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who warned on Friday that the world was rushing headlong towards climate disaster, said the Rome summit neither fulfilled his hopes nor buried them.

“While I welcome the G20’s recommitment to global solutions, I leave Rome with my hopes unfulfilled - but at least they are not buried,” he said in a tweet.

“Onwards to COP26 in Glasgow to keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive and to implement promises on finance and adaptation for people & planet.”

The 1.5C threshold is what UN experts say must be met to avoid a dramatic acceleration of extreme climate events like droughts, storms and floods, and to reach it they recommend net-zero emissions should be achieved by 2050.

The stakes are huge - among them the very survival of low-lying countries, the impact on economic livelihoods the world over and the stability of the global financial system.

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

The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for an estimated 80 percent 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 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 meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries,” the communique said.

ARR