Climate change at the forefront of G20 talks on Sunday
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As the G20 meeting moves into its second day, climate change activists remain disappointed by drafts of the final communique from the meeting which shows little to no real commitment to curbing pollution reports Reuters. The first day of the meeting was filled with discussions of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and it's impact on the global economy.
On Friday, UN General Secretary Antonio Gutierrez said that 'mistrust' was the reason why many poorer countries were reluctant to commit to cutting emissions. ThIs was due to richer nations not fulfilling a promise to provide 100 billion dollars a year from 2020 to help poorer countries develop the technology to fight climate change, a promise which was made 12 years ago.
Countries like India, China and Russia have not committed to the mid-century zero emissions target that United Nations experts say is needed to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, seen as the limit to avoid a dramatic acceleration of extreme events such as droughts, storms and floods.
Based on the latest draft, the G20 members have made little progress, pledging to "do our utmost" to stop building new coal power plants before the end of the 2030s and saying they will phase out fossil fuel subsidies "over the medium term." On the other hand, they do pledge to halt financing of overseas coal-fired power generation by the end of this year.
