G20 Fails To Deliver on Carbon Reduction Promises

Sept. 11, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Despite the G20 Summit and its final Leaders’ Declaration being filled with pledges for green energy, biofuels, and sustainability, corollary pledges to eliminate fossil fuels were clearly a non-starter.

There was no mention of the need to phase out fossil fuels or to eliminate carbon-emitting energy sources. Instead, commitments were made to “triple renewable energy capacity” by 2030. On the subject of coal and fossil fuels, they could only muster this strangely worded sentence: “To recognize the importance ... accelerating efforts towards phasedown of unabated coal power, in line with national circumstances and recognizing the need for support towards just transitions.”

Fossil fuels are not going away anytime soon. G20 members Russia and Saudi Arabia continue to be large oil exporters, and both China and India, the world’s largest coal consumers, continue to increase their coal consumption.

French President Emmanuel Macron was not happy, commenting on Sept. 10 following the summit, that the climate pledges were “insufficient,” and that the world must “phase out coal very rapidly and much more quickly than today.”