G-20 leaders turn focus to climate change on Rio summit’s last day

RIO DE JANEIRO - Leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) major economies meet on Nov 19 to discuss sustainable development and the transition to cleaner energy, as they aim to increase the odds of a successful deal to address global warming at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan.

The host of the COP29 climate summit a day earlier had made a plea for G-20 countries to send a positive signal on the need to tackle climate change and provide clear mandates to help save talks that had bogged down in Baku, Azerbaijan.

With the world on track for its warmest year on record, leaders are seeking to shore up efforts to address climate change before Donald Trump retakes the US presidency in January. He is reportedly preparing to exit the Paris Agreement on climate change and roll back US policy on global warming.

In a joint statement issued late Nov 18, the G-20 leaders called for “rapidly and substantially increasing climate finance from billions to trillions from all sources” to pay for the response to climate change.

G-20 leaders agreed that COP29 negotiators need to reach a deal on a new financial goal for how much money rich nations must provide to poorer developing nations in climate finance.

But while the G-20 statement said nations need to resolve the issue, they did not indicate what the solution should be at the UN summit slated to end on Nov 22.

Economists suggest that goal should be at least US$1 trillion (S$1.34 trillion) annually.

Developed countries, including in Europe, argue that the contributor base needs to be expanded to include richer developing countries like China and richer Middle Eastern countries in order to agree an ambitious goal.

Developing countries, such as G-20 host Brazil, have pushed back on expanding beyond developed countries, the main culprits for causing climate change.

On Nov 17, sources close to the G-20 negotiations said a text had been floated that suggested that developing countries could contribute on a voluntary basis, but such language did not make it into the final agreement.

Opening their annual summit in Rio de Janeiro on Nov 18, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the impact of climate change was evident all over the world and needed to be addressed urgently.

G-20 nations are seen as vital to shaping the response to global warming, as they control 85 per cent of the world economy and are also responsible for more than three-quarters of climate-warming emissions.

The G-20 also committed to agreeing on a legally binding treaty to limit plastic pollution by the end of 2024, with talks on the subject set to resume next week aiming to end over two years of negotiations to hammer out a deal. REUTERS