US President Joe Biden has blamed China and Russia for not bringing climate proposals to the table at the G20 because more could have been done if they did.
IT News Nigeria:
Leaders of the Group of 20 in Rome ended the Submit without binding decisions on climate change owing majorly to blame gamed and old narratives that divide East and West.
leaving out India, Brazil and Gernamy, US president Joe Biden began by scolding China and Russia for not doing enough on climate control.
The Submit came up with a final statement on Sunday that urged “meaningful and effective” action to limit global warming without offering concrete commitments despite days of tough negotiation among diplomats.
Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for 60% of the world’s population and an estimated 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Biden said he was disappointed that more could not have been done and blamed China and Russia for not bringing proposals to the table.
“The disappointment relates to the fact that Russia and … China basically didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change,” Biden told media
According to Reuters, although the G20 pledged to stop financing coal power overseas, they set no timetable for phasing it out at home, and watered down the wording on a promise to reduce emissions of methane – another potent greenhouse gas.
The final summit document said 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°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.
Why Climate decision at G20 matters
Analysis by Reuters said the leaders only recognised “the key relevance” of halting net emissions “by or around mid-century”. This removed the 2050 date seen in previous versions of the final statement so as to make the target less specific.
China, the world’s biggest CO2 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.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the agreement was a good signal for COP26, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signalled he would have liked to see more ambition.
“There’s no question that Canada, along with a number of other countries, would have liked stronger language and stronger commitments on the fight against climate change than others,” he told reporters.
U.N. experts say that even if current national plans are fully implemented, the world is headed for global warming of 2.7C, with catastrophic consequences.
Draghi predicted that nations would keep on improving their plans to lower carbon emissions in the years ahead, adding that he was surprised by how far countries like China and Russia had shifted their stance in recent days.
“It is easy to suggest difficult things. It is very, very difficult to actually execute them,” he said.
See also: Climate Change: Nigeria advocates “energy justice” for Africa
The final G20 statement 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 only to do so “as soon as possible”.
This replaced a goal set in a previous draft of the final statement to achieve this by the end of the 2030s, showing the strong resistance from some coal-dependent countries
The G20 also set no date for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, saying they will aim to do so “over the medium term”.
*Image sourced: Reuters