Posted on 27 June 2010
Toronto, Canada
- The G20 leaders conference has wound down
to a disappointing close in Canada, failing
to build on last year's commitments to phase
out fossil fuel subsidies and downgrading
mentions of clean energy from eight mentions
in their Pittsburgh communique to none from
over the border in Toronto.
Sustainable economic
recovery will need more than brief platitudes
about green recovery, WWF warned on noting
the lack of significant commitments on climate
change, climate finance or even the G20-nominated
issue of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
“The world leaders are
still painting the economy in black and
white. But the 21st century economy must
include green,” said Kim Carstensen, the
leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.
“The greenest thing
about the G20 is its ability to reuse and
recycle earlier commitments. This summit
could have been the beginning of real action
towards a clean, efficient and resilient
economy but all we got is some nice words
about green economy and a recycled statement
on fossil fuel subsidies”
At the 2009 Pittsburgh
G20 summit leaders committed to “Rationalize
and phase out over the medium term inefficient
fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful
consumption”.
“This year’s G20 Statement
repeats this commitment, and leaders “...encourage
continued and full implementation of country-specific
strategies and will continue to review progress
towards this commitment.”
Carstensen said, “Reforming
fossil fuel subsidies is an obvious win-win
solution for the environment and the economy,
and it is encouraging that the issue will
remain on the G20 agenda. But in Canada
the leaders failed to take the next step
to indicate their global level of ambition
and agree a clear timeline to achieve what
they promise.”
India takes a lead
However, one bright
spot was India this week translating talk
into action, announcing a phase out of fossil
fuel subsidies on petrol and reviewing subsidies
on diesel and other fossil fuels.
This week India’s example
shows that there is surely a will in a number
of countries, but to push the global agenda,
we still need a stronger ambition and deadlines
on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies which
account for more than US$500 billion a year
globally.”
"They went through
this document with a vacuum cleaner . .
. "
As the G20 meeting wound
down, the final reference to "clean
energy" was dropped from the text.
"They went through
this document with a vacuum cleaner to remove
any reference to clean energy," Carstensen
said. "In the Pittsburgh G20 summit,
there were 8 references to "clean energy"
- in this one, there is zero. This is demonstrative
of the host country's lack of drive and
ambition on empowering a shift to renewable
energy."
The G20 also did not
agree any initiatives that could help provide
funds to meet the cost of climate change
action in the poorest countries. The move
by German Chancellor Merkel and French President
Sarkozy to advance the discussion on financial
transaction taxes (FTT) was shoved aside
by the G20. If FTTs were adopted globally,
they would have the potential to generate
much needed finance for development and
environmental issues while forking out for
the economy.
“G20 leaders say that
they are the premier forum for international
economic cooperation.
If they are serious
about this, they need to also discuss how
to generate the funds urgently needed to
help vulnerable countries cope with climate
change.”
Canada has played a
highly unhelpful role as hosts of the summit,
consistently ignoring calls from world leaders
to allocate time for meaningful discussion
of climate change.
“Canada did not succeed
in keeping climate change off the G20 agenda
but as host, they must be seen as the major
reason why it has not been possible to move
beyond repetition of last year’s agreements,”
said Zoë Caron, Climate Policy and
Advocacy Specialist, WWF Canada.
The G20 missed an opportunity
to become a relevant global player on climate
and energy. South Korea has a big gap to
fill at the next G20 summit in November.
