Energy News
ENERGY NEWS
Global warming will 'decimate' G20 economies without unity: UN climate head
Reuters Events SMR and Advanced Reactor 2025
Global warming will 'decimate' G20 economies without unity: UN climate head
by AFP Staff Writers
London (AFP) April 10, 2024

UN climate chief Simon Stiell on Wednesday warned G20 nations their economies face decimation and they must overcome geopolitical divisions to tackle global warming.

Stiell said the climate crisis was slipping down a crowded global agenda at a time when consensus was needed on how to help developing nations pay for clean energy and respond to extreme weather.

The Group of 20 developed and developing economies including the United States, China and India faced many geopolitical challenges but this "cannot be an excuse for timidity amidst this worsening crisis", Stiell said in a London speech.

"I'll be candid: blame-shifting is not -- is not -- a strategy. Sidelining climate isn't a solution to a crisis that will decimate every G20 economy and has already started to hurt," said the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"The financial firepower the G20 marshaled during the global financial crisis should be marshaled again and pointed squarely at curbing runaway emissions and building resilience right now."

Brazil had hoped a gathering of G20 finance ministers it hosted in February would spotlight climate change but the meeting ended in discord over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Stiell's rallying cry follows this week's announcement by Europe's climate monitor that March was the hottest on record and the tenth straight month of historic heat around the globe.

- No time for talkfest -

Stiell has previously said the world needed "torrents" of cash to fund the clean energy transition -- but who pays what has long been a sticking point at the UN's annual climate negotiations.

Countries at last year's talks in Dubai agreed to triple global renewables capacity this decade and "transition away" from fossil fuels but the deal lacked important details on funding.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says wealthy nations likely provided $100 billion in climate finance to poorer nations in 2022.

But this is far from the estimated $2.4 trillion annually that developing countries -- excluding China -- will need to meet their climate and development needs.

Poorer countries cannot foot the bill, and have been urging reform to western-led financial institutions to ensure fairer terms and access to capital for nations the least responsible for climate change.

Stiell urged financial leaders convening at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC next week not to let climate finance "slip between the cracks of different mandates".

"We can't afford a talkfest without clear steps forward," he said.

By early 2025, nations are to explain what steps they are taking to cut emissions in line with the Paris agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.

But the world is nowhere near meeting this target, and emissions continued to rise in 2023.

Stiell said developing nations could not be expected to respond to the crisis when "treasury coffers are bare... new borrowing is impossible, and the wolves of poverty are at the door".

- 'Rise to this moment' -

G20 nations were responsible for 80 percent of planet-heating emissions "and must be at the core of the solution", Stiell said.

"A quantum leap this year in climate finance is both essential and entirely achievable," he said.

"The world needs the G20 to rise to this moment."

A new report published by two advocacy groups on Tuesday found that G20 economies and multilateral lenders provided $142 billion in funding for fossil fuel projects between 2020 and 2022.

That was almost 1.4 times the amount spent on clean energy investments over the same period, said the report by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth US.

Stiell urged finance ministers, investors and development bankers to "shift those dollars from the energy and infrastructure of the past towards that of a cleaner, more resilient future".

In a year when dozens of nations and hundreds of millions of people are going to the polls, Stiell said "every voice matters".

"Yours have never been more important. If you want bolder climate action, now is the time to make your voices heard," he said.

Related Links

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
ENERGY NEWS
Climate pledges of big firms 'critically insufficient': report
Paris (AFP) April 8, 2024
From carmakers to fast fashion, dozens of major international companies are failing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions at the pace required to slow climate change, a report said Tuesday. The nonprofit research groups NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch looked at the climate pledges of 51 multinational firms and found many brands were inflating their sustainability claims. Distinguishing real cuts to planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions from "unsubstantiated greenwashing" was a ... read more

ENERGY NEWS
Australia PM unveils plan to overhaul economy, invest in green energy

Putin says Ukraine energy strikes to demilitarise country

Global warming will 'decimate' G20 economies without unity: UN climate head

Climate pledges of big firms 'critically insufficient': report

ENERGY NEWS
Innovative Seron Electronics Paves the Way for Accessible Scientific Research

Dig deep: US bets on geothermal to become renewable powerhouse

Setting a laser like sight on a path to practical fusion

Unveiling a new class of plasma waves: implications for fusion energy

ENERGY NEWS
EU probes Chinese wind turbine suppliers over subsidies

China says 'highly concerned' over EU probe into wind turbine suppliers

Swedish-Belgian group wins Norway's first offshore wind license

Wind-powered Dutch ship sets sail for greener future

ENERGY NEWS
Project receives funding for advanced solar-thermal research

Quantum Material Achieves Up to 190% Efficiency in Solar Cells

Improving Solar and Wind Power Integration in the U.S. Grid

New four-terminal tandem organic solar cell achieves 16,94% power conversion efficiency

ENERGY NEWS
IAEA warns that attacks on Ukraine plant mark new risks in war

IAEA to meet on nuclear plant targeted in Ukraine conflict

Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant damaged in drone attack

Kyiv, Moscow trade accusations of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant attacks

ENERGY NEWS
Transforming CO2 into green fuel with innovative sunlight-powered catalyst

Turning CO2 into Methanol at Room Temperature

Tripling the US Bioeconomy: The Billion-Ton Report's Blueprint for Sustainable Biomass

Greenhouse gas repurposed in University of Auckland experiments

ENERGY NEWS
Russian 'shadow fleet' ups risk of Baltic Sea spill: Finland

RTX Satellite Launch Aids in Global Methane Emission Reduction Efforts

US denies secret bases in Venezuela-Guyana border row

Venezuela says US building 'secret' bases in disputed Essequibo

ENERGY NEWS
Top Europe court chides Switzerland in landmark climate ruling

'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe: monitor

Vietnam province declares state of emergency over drought

Thunberg detained twice at Dutch climate protest

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.