Jan Strupczewski & Gavin Jones

ROME, (Reuters) – The 20 wealthiest countries of the world will make a commitment this weekend to tackling climate change. It is expected that more concrete action will be taken at the U.N. Climate Change Summit next week.

The draft states that the leaders of Group of 20 who meet for talks in Rome this weekend will promise to urgently take steps to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The group will travel to Glasgow, Scotland, for a critical United Nations meeting of nearly 200 countries known as “COP26”.

Paris accord of 2015 was historic. It committed the signatories to keeping global temperature rise to “well below”, or at least 1.5 degrees, above pre-industrial levels.

As extreme weather events have become more frequent and the carbon level in the atmosphere has grown, climate scientists are increasingly emphasizing the necessity of setting a 1.5-degree limit on the danger of ecological catastrophe.

“Reacting to the call by the scientific community, taking into consideration the alarming reports from the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and being mindful of what our leadership role is, we pledge to face the existential problem of climate change,” read the draft. It could still be modified.

The G20 stated that 1.5 degree climate change has lower impacts than 2 degrees. Therefore, it is important to take immediate actions to ensure 1.5 degrees remain within our reach.

The statement stated that “We recognize the importance of reaching global net zero greenhouse gases emissions or carbon neutrality before 2050”, referring to UN climate experts’ recommendation. They believe the deadline by the middle century is critical to reach the 1.5 degree temperature limit.

The draft shows the date 2050 in brackets. This indicates it is still up for negotiation.

The world’s largest polluters claim they won’t be able to meet their 2050 targets. China, the biggest emitter of carbon, is aiming at 2060.

CURBING COAL PROTECTION

G20, Brazil, China India, Germany, and the United States together account for over 80% each of the world’s Gross Domestic Product, 60 percent of its people, and 80% respectively of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

G20 leaders reiterated their resolve to reduce subsidies for fossil fuels by 2025, and also to curtail coal power which is a key contributor to global warming.

Leaders stated that they would “do everything possible” to prevent the construction of new coal plants. They also added “taking national circumstances into consideration,” which can be used to avoid making firm commitments.

According to the draft the leaders claimed they would close the public funding for foreign coal plants in this year, and that the goal was for a “largely-decarbonized” power system by 2030.

Additionally, they pledged to decrease their combined methane and carbon dioxide emissions “substantially” before 2030. Also, this deadline is in brackets.

It is expected that the G20 summit and Glasgow summit will be successful if developed nations are willing to finance the eco-transition of poorer countries, also known as climate financing.

According to the draft, “We insist on the necessity of fulfilling the commitment by developed countries to mobilize $100 million annually from private and public sources up to 2025 in order to respond to the needs for developing countries”

Although richer nations agreed to create a fund of $100 billion annually in 2009 in order to transfer technology and reduce climate risk in developing countries, progress has been slow.

Alok Sharma (President of the COP26 Conference) stated this week that he hoped for the fund to be available in 2023. That’s three years later than originally scheduled. Also, many developing countries have resisted the call to reduce their carbon emissions until the rich meet their promises.

On Wednesday, a Chinese official in charge of environment said that this is “the greatest obstacle” to the progress of climate negotiations.

G20 Draft calls for brackets to refer to “additional climate finance”, which suggests that there are still a lot of negotiations on this matter.