2023-07-28 15:11:30
A week after the failure on fossil fuels, the G20 environment ministers also failed to agree on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
G20 environment ministers failed to reach an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change, a week after the failure on fossil fuels. “We were unable to reach an agreement on a cap on greenhouse gas emissions by 2025,” said French Minister for Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, before adding: “I am very disappointed” . Talks with China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia have been ‘complicated’he specified.
All files stalled
The ministers of the G20, whose members alone account for more than 80% of both the gross world domestic product and the CO2 emissions on the planet, were to consider this Friday in Madras, India, several crucial files such as financing for adaptation to climate change, biodiversity and the principles that should govern maritime economic activities. And especially that aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, for which the French minister announced a failure at the end of the day. But in the corridors, we did not expect significant results on the other issues either.
“People’s livelihoods are being destroyed.”
However, it was originally planned that this meeting of the Environment Ministers of the Group of Twenty (the nineteen most developed economies and the European Union) would lead to agreements which would then be signed by the leaders during summit in September in New Delhi. “People’s livelihoods are being destroyed,” warned EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius on Wednesday, calling for resilience among populations threatened by climate change.
Not a “good political understanding” of the situation
Everyone present in Madras on Friday “understands the gravity of the crisis” the world is facing, said on the sidelines of the conference, Adnan Amin, who is leading the climate talks this year, ahead of COP28. . “But I believe that we have still not reached a good political understanding” of the situation, and in particular the will to overlook “immediate national interests”.
“There really is no time to waste.”
“Given the scale of the three global crisesclimate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution, there really is no time to lose,” Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, also warned on Thursday.
“Negotiations are not going fast”
The failure of the G20 energy ministers who, on 22 July in Goa, India, failed to agree on a timetable for reducing the use of fossil fuels was seen as a victory of the big oil producers opposing resistance to a rapid energy transition. Among the participants in the Madras summit is notably Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates Adnoc, who will also chair the COP28 negotiations.
“As long as there is demand (for oil), there will continue to be production.”
Sultan Al Jaber has been criticized for what appears to be a conflict of interest, with fossil fuels seen as the main cause of global warming. Some openly blame the big oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia or Russia, for the lack of progress in the talks. “As long as there is demand, there will continue to be production,” Mr. Amin commented.
“The negotiations are not going fast, I’m not going to hide it,” Sinkevicius acknowledged, stressing that the years have passed since the Paris climate agreement of 2015 and that it “is time to apply it “.
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