Collapse of G20 climate talks in Bali : ‘nothing happened’

A lot of ‘carbon emissions’ to get there, followed by much fruitless arguing. Sounds shambolic.
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Climate and energy ministers clashed over Ukraine, climate finance, methane, shipping, carbon levies and whether 1.5C or 2C should be the world’s warming limit, summarises Climate Home News.

Energy and climate ministers from some of the world’s largest economies have failed to agree on joint texts at G20 meetings in Bali, Indonesia.

With two months to the Cop27 summit, host Egypt has warned against “backtracking” on climate commitments.

Draft texts seen by Climate Home News show G20 ministers clashed on language over Russia’s war on Ukraine, climate finance and whether limiting global warming to 1.5C or 2C should be the world’s climate target.

After talks broke down, Cop26 president Alok Sharma and incoming Cop27 president Sameh Shoukry both warned against countries backsliding on climate pledges.

Egypt’s foreign minister Shoukry said: “G20 members should play a leading a role in ensuring that the challenges created by the current global situation do not serve as a pretext or justification for the continued delay in the fulfilment of climate pledges or backtracking on hard-earned gains in the global fight against climate change.”

“It is concerning to see coal coming back as a source of energy in some parts of the world,” he said, adding that shortcomings on climate finance were worrying: “It is equally concerning that climate finance commitments, especially the $100 billion goal, are still lagging in implementation while the needs of developing countries continue to rise.”

Sharma, the British lawmaker who presided over last year’s climate talks, said: “It is certainly the case that what we did see was a number of countries backsliding on the commitments that they made in Paris [in 2015] and in Glasgow [last year]”. Neither Sharma nor Shoukry singled out any country.

One minister in attendance describing the meeting to Climate Home said: “Nothing happened in Bali. Failure. Weak presidency.”

Full article here.