G20’s commitment needed to reach the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal: UN chief

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the leadership of Group of 20 industrialised countries on the key issue of climate action, saying that he sees no pathway to reach Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius goal without them.

“The world urgently needs a clear and unambiguous commitment to the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement from all G-20 nations,” he said on Sunday after the group failed to agree on the wording of key climate change commitments during their recent ministerial meeting on environment, climate and energy.

“There is no pathway to this goal without the leadership of the G20. This signal is desperately needed by the billions of people already on the frontlines of the climate crisis and by markets, investors and industry who require certainty that a net zero climate resilient future is inevitable”, the secretary-general urged in a statement.

The UN chief reminded that science indicates that to meet that ‘ambitious, yet achievable goal’, the world must achieve carbon neutrality before 2050 and cut dangerous greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 from 2010 levels. “But we are way off track,” he warned.

With less than 100 days left before the 2021 United Nations Climate Conference COP 26, a pivotal meeting that will be held in Glasgow at the end of October, António Guterres urged all G20 and other leaders to commit to net zero by mid-century, present more ambitious 2030 national climate plans and deliver on concrete policies and actions aligned with a net zero future.

These include no new coal after 2021, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and agreeing to a minimum international carbon pricing floor as proposed by the International Monetary Fund.

“The G7 and other developed countries must also deliver on a credible solidarity package of support for developing countries, including meeting the $100 billion goal, increasing adaptation and resilience support to at least 50 per cent of the total climate finance and getting public and multilateral development banks to significantly align their climate portfolios to meet the needs of [the] developing countries,” he said.

The UN chief said he intends to use the opportunity of the upcoming UN General Assembly high-level session to bring leaders together to reach a political understanding on these critical elements of the ‘package’ needed for Glasgow.

The G20 ministers, which met in Naples, Italy on July 23 to 25, couldn’t agree to a common language on two disputed issues related to phasing out coal and the 1.5-degree goal, which now will have to be discussed at the G20 Summit in Rome in October, just one day before the COP 26 starts.