G20 in Hamburg: Civil society urges Merkel on climate

More than 300 civil society organisations call on “the remaining 19 members of the G20 to reaffirm their unfaltering commitment” to the implementation of The Paris Agreement after the US decision to leave the accord. The G20 engagement group Civil20 (C20) handed a communiqué demanding “a radical transformation of the present neoliberal economic system” to German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a meeting in Hamburg. Among other things, the C20 called for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, setting effective and fair carbon price signals and “sticking to the promises” to ramp up climate financing. “We will not be able to fulfil everything you envisage,” Merkel told the summit participants. “But things will hopefully progress again step-by-step this time. Above all, we must not go backwards.” The communiqué is a condensed version of C20 policy recommendations to the G20 from March.

Find a press release in German here.

For background read the CLEW article NGOs urge Merkel to push G20 on climate despite US opt-out.