G20 need more ambitious climate strategies – report

No G20 country has a climate strategy in line with the Paris Agreement’s ambitious end of its main target - to limit global warming to 1.5°C - although most are technically capable and have economic incentives to do so, writes Climate Transparency, an international partnership of climate research organisations and NGOs, in a report. However, China, the EU and its G20 member states, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are projected to meet or surpass their NDC (nationally determined contributions) targets under the Paris Climate Agreement regime. This shows that the NDC targets are not yet the “highest possible ambition” as required by the accord, writes Climate Transparency. The 2019 “Brown to Green Report” evaluates the G20 countries’ individual transition to a low-carbon economy, mapping achievements in their efforts to reduce emissions, adapt to climate impacts and green the financial system. It provides detailed profiles for the individual G20 members. With its climate package, the German government has recently adopted additional policy to reach its 2030 target, but the target itself must be revised “in order to align it with the Paris Agreement and with [Germany’s] long-term target of becoming greenhouse gas neutral by 2050,” said the report. Climate Transparency recommends a German coal exit as early as 2030 and raising the level of the planned CO2 price in transport and buildings, among other things. 

G20 nations are responsible for about 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and represent 80 percent of global wealth. The current US administration's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement has made progress on climate much more difficult. At the G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017, the all G20 members with the exception of the United States committed to the Paris Agreement in the final communiqué. This solution has been used in most G20 and G7 summits since.