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G-20 leaders build momentum in run up to Copenhagen

A week after G-20 leaders left Pittsburgh to return home, it is a good moment to reflect on what they agreed during the summit with regard to the environment. While they did not make as much progress on this front as is required, parts of their Concluding Statement raise hopes of their intentions in the run up to the UN Climate Change Conference in December.

In the preamble to their Concluding Statement, leaders attending the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh (USA) said: “We meet in the midst of a critical transition from crisis to recovery to turn the page on an era of irresponsibility and to adopt a set of policies, regulations and reforms to meet the needs of the 21st century global economy.” While these words refer to a lack of responsibility towards the economy, they equally apply to the environmental, although there are indications that the G-20 leaders are beginning to realise how much importance protecting the environment has, not just in terms of avoiding climate change and protecting food supplies and our way of life, but also as a tool to sustained economic recovery.

Although the G-20 meeting did not make as much progress with regard to the environment as is ultimately needed , it did provide some forward momentum in a couple of areas. Going into the G-20 meeting, the issue of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies seemed to spring out of thin air, but by the end of the summit, the G-20 countries had committed to: "Rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption…We will have our Energy and Finance Ministers, based on their national circumstances, develop implementation strategies and timeframes, and report back to Leaders at the next Summit." As Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council says “we need all the wheels moving in the forward direction and subsidies for fossil fuel emissions are moving us in the wrong direction on clean energy and global warming pollution”. Meanwhile, the G-20 leaders themselves say “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies [which amount to over €200 billion a year worldwide] encourage wasteful consumption, distort markets, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with climate change.” The OECD and the IEA have found for example that eliminating fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by 10%, so if the G-20 follow through with their commitment, we should see carbon dioxide emissions start to fall as the business world’s attention is drawn away from fossil fuels and public funds are freed up for investment in clean energy.

Another area where the G-20 summit made headway was in relation to improving access to diverse, reliable, affordable and clean energy, something which the G-20 leaders themselves conclude “is critical for sustainable growth”. As a result, the Concluding Statement also included an individual and collective commitment to: “Stimulate investment in clean energy, renewables, and energy efficiency and provide financial and technical support for such projects in developing countries.”

Climate financing still a sticking point

At the end of the Major Economies Forum meeting in Italy back in July, President Obama "asked the G-20 finance ministers to take up the climate financing issues and report back to us at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh in the fall". In light of this, it was expected that climate investment and finance in developing countries would be high up on the agenda for the G-20 summit. Since finance ministers and heads of government have considerably more power and influence within their own countries to finance the fight against climate change, this step was welcomed.

However, only some progress on this issue was made during the Pittsburgh summit and it is clear that a lot of work still lies ahead, as the G-20 countries were only able to state that: “We welcome the work of the Finance Ministers and direct them to report back at their next meeting with a range of possible options for climate change financing to be provided as a resource to be considered in the UNFCCC negotiations at Copenhagen.” Work on this issue definitely needs to move up a gear if a strong outcome is to be achieved in Copenhagen.

Finally, in the closing paragraph of the section of the Concluding Statement, the G-20 leaders said: “We underscore anew our resolve to take strong action to address the threat of dangerous climate change. We reaffirm the objective, provisions, and principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including common but differentiated responsibilities. We note the principles endorsed by Leaders at the Major Economies Forum in L’Aquila, Italy. We will intensify our efforts, in cooperation with other parties, to reach agreement in Copenhagen through the UNFCCC negotiation. An agreement must include mitigation, adaptation, technology, and financing.”

The question now is whether or not this injection of momentum will lead to these goals being realised in Copenhagen two months from now.

The full Concluding Statement of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh is available here:

Concluding Statement

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