The UN has warned that leaders of the world’s biggest economies meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Monday must among
other things, agree to provide the finance that the world’s poorest need to tackle the climate crisis or face “economic carnage”.
The G20 nations are expected to gather in Brazil for two days of talks, while many of their ministers remain in Azerbaijan where crucial negotiations at the Cop29 climate crisis summit have stalled. Rich countries’ governments have not yet put forward the offers of hundreds of billions of dollars in financial aid that economists say are needed to help poorer countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather.
Simon Stiell, who is the UN’s climate chief, called on the G20 leaders to break the logjam. “The G20 was created to tackle problems that no one country or group of countries can tackle alone. On that basis, the global climate crisis should be order of business number one, in Rio,” he said.
“Climate impacts are already ripping shreds out of every G20 economy, wrecking lives, pummelling supply chains and food prices, and fanning inflation. Bolder climate action is basic self-preservation for every G20 economy. Without rapid cuts in emissions, no G20 economy will be spared from climate-driven economic carnage,” he warned.
Read also: Cop29 negotiator says countries must set aside differences, agree climate finance deal
He added that the G20 must also discuss debt relief, as many poor countries are unable to take measures to protect themselves from climate breakdown while they are already struggling with debt servicing costs that have been pushed higher by interest rate rises.
“In turbulent times and a fracturing world, G20 leaders must signal loud and clear that international cooperation is still the best and only chance humanity has to survive global heating,” he added. “There is no other way.”
Only a few heads of government of G20 countries attended the Cop29 talks when they began last week. Keir Starmer, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey flew into Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, but many countries sent ministers or high-ranking officials instead.
Poor countries are hoping for a global financial settlement from Cop29 that will reach $1 trillion a year by 2030, a widely accepted figure based on research by the leading economists Nicholas Stern, Vera Songwe and Amar Bhattacharya.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
