Saturday 30th October 2021
No agreement in sight
G20 fail at climate protection
The signal is missing: The G20 states do not seem to agree on concrete steps to protect the climate. The summit document will be defused at key points. There is no longer any question of “acting immediately”.
Efforts to send a strong signal from the G20 summit ahead of the world climate change meeting in Glasgow are in danger of failing. The group of the major economic powers can apparently not agree on concrete goals for climate protection at their summit in Rome. Originally intended targets and commitments have been deleted from the latest draft of the final communiqué that was submitted to the German Press Agency.
So there was no longer even an agreement on “immediate action”, as it was called in an earlier draft. Now there is talk of “meaningful and effective action” in order to slow down dangerous global warming to 1.5 degrees, as is the aim of the Paris Climate Agreement. The final declaration should be adopted on Sunday.
There has also been no progress towards the goal of carbon dioxide neutrality. The target date originally set for 2050 is now more generally referred to as “mid-century”. Obviously, this was also done out of consideration for China. The largest producer of carbon dioxide had previously only committed to it until 2060. There was also no agreement on the expiry of subsidies for fossil fuels, which, according to an earlier draft, had been targeted for the first time by 2025. So the target date was deleted again. Instead, only the old commitment of 2009 in Pittsburgh to let the subsidies run out “in the medium term” was reaffirmed.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report deleted
Even a reference to the “alarming reports” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which had warned of the dangers of global warming, was weakened in the text with “recent reports”. The latest draft also lacks an initial formulation to aim for a “largely carbon dioxide-free power supply” in the 2030s. Rather, there is only talk of expanding clean energies.
The goal of doing everything possible to avoid the construction of new coal-fired power plants is further listed. However, there is the restriction that “national circumstances should be taken into account”. It also stresses the need to ensure a secure, uninterrupted power supply.
In recent months, China has suffered from a massive energy shortage due to increasing demand and insufficient production and has even had to ration electricity for industry by ordering production stops for companies. To alleviate the shortage, coal mining and imports were increased again. India also relies heavily on coal for its energy supply.