The G20 commitment to renewable energy, reached at the New Delhi summit, was seen as a “ray of hope” for some and a “minimum” for others.
The G20 group expressed itself deeply divided on oil this Saturday and decided not to ask for an exit from fossil fuels, but to support, for the first time, the tripling of renewable energies between now and 2030.
The G20 commitment to renewable energy, reached at the New Delhi summit, was seen as a “ray of hope” for some and a “minimum” for othersconsidering that the decision comes three months before COP28, the 28th United Nations conference on Climate Change, which will take place from November 30 to December 12, in Dubai.
The future of fossil fuels, the main cause of the increasingly serious climate crisis, is this year at the center of international negotiations that will culminate in December, at COP28.
An exit from fossil fuels without capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) is also considered “indispensable” in the first official report on the Paris Agreement, published on Friday by the United Nations (UN). The G7 (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) already approved this year to accelerate the exit from fossil fuels, but without a defined calendar.
At the end of the G20 summit, a group of countries that represent 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, The final statement calls for “accelerating efforts to reduce consumption of electricity from coal,” which excludes gas and oil. and reaffirms the commitment to “reduce and rationalize, in the medium term, subsidies for inefficient uses of fossil fuels”, as in other previous summits.
The G20, whose geopolitical disagreements are numerous, whether over Ukraine or the rivalry between the United States and China, is also at odds over the future of oil, with large producers such as Saudi Arabia very reluctant to the issue.
The G20 brings together the 19 most developed or emerging economies and the European Union. The African Union became part of the group as of this Saturday, and the name change to G21 has not yet been mentioned.
“Leaders agreed to the minimum, a repeat of the 2022 G20 Bali commitment to phase out coal”said Lisa Fischer, an expert at the E3G group on climate change.
However, G20 leaders meeting in New Delhi recognize that limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, “requires a rapid, strong and sustained reduction in emissions of 43% by 2030.” compared to 2019”, according to the recommendations of the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which points to a peak in emissions by 2025.
Embora 2023 is on the way to becoming the next year ever recorded, “this G20 should show the way for a future without fossil fuels,” said Friederike Roder, vice-president of the NGO Global Citizen, denouncing “a very bad sign for the world”.
The reduction of fossil fuels is one of the ambitions of the president of COP28: Sultan Al Jaber himself, at the same time director of the UAE national oil company – ADNOC, considered their strong reduction “inevitable and essential”, but a once built the clean energy system of the future.
On this topic, the G20 states, for the first time, that it will “continue and encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacities” by 2030, a goal that should reach consensus at COP28.
“This is a significant and surprising step by the G20,” said Ember Group’s Aditya Lolla, praising “a major change of course by Saudi Arabia and Russia.”
Source: Observadora
