UN climate chief urges G20 leaders to carry out rapid cuts in emissions

Terming bolder climate action as self-preservation for every G20 economy, UN climate chief Simon Stiell on Saturday urged the grouping's leaders headed to Rio de Janeiro to carry out rapid cuts in emissions to prevent climate-driven economic carnage.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will be among the leaders attending the G20 Summit on November 18 and 19.

In an address at the COP29 here in Azerbaijan's capital, Stiell, the Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that G20 was created to tackle problems that no one country, or group of countries, can tackle alone.

On that basis, the global climate crisis should be the priority in Rio next week, he added.

Climate impacts are already ripping shreds out of every G20 economy, wrecking lives, pummelling supply chains and food prices, and fanning inflation, Stiell said.

Bolder climate action is basic self-preservation for every G20 economy. Without rapid cuts in emissions, no G20 economy will be spared from climate-driven economic carnage, he added.

But there is also a good news story, he said, referring to the USD 2 trillion that are expected to flow for clean energy and infrastructure this year alone, double of what's gone to fossil fuels.

Stiell also said some G20 countries are already taking a big slice of this fast-growing clean energy boom.

He said boosting global climate finance is about ensuring all countries can share in the vast benefits of bolder climate action: stronger growth, more jobs, less pollution, and more secure and affordable energy. And ensuring all countries can build resilience into their parts of global supply chains.

Stepping it up on climate finance globally requires action both inside our COP process and outside of it, Stiell said.

Negotiators from more than 190 countries at the annual Conference of Parties (COP) here are working round the clock on a new climate finance goal.

There is a long way to go, but everyone is very aware of the stakes, at the halfway point in the COP, he said at the end of the first week of the two-week conference.

The UN Executive Secretary said in turbulent times and a fracturing world, G20 leaders must signal loud and clear that international cooperation is still the best and only chance humanity has to survive global heating. There is no other way.

Noting that climate finance progress outside of the UNFCCC process is equally crucial and the G20's role is mission-critical, he said next week's summit must send at least three crystal clear global signals.

First, that more grant and concessional finance will be available; second, that further G20 governmetns will keep pushing for more reform multilateral development banks, and third, that debt relief must be a crucial part of the solution so that vulnerable countries are not hamstrung by debt servicing costs making bolder climate actions all but impossible.

G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US as well as the European Union and the African Union, together representing around 85 per cent of the global GDP and about two-thirds of the population.