Ominous shadow of climate change
A deal in Bali to help wean Indonesia off coal raises hope amid standoff at COP27 over how to fund emission reductions
At the G20 Summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, geopolitical concerns have stolen the limelight not just from economic ones but also from an issue that is seldom far away from conference agendas anywhere.
But this is not to say that world leaders attending the meeting have overlooked climate change, the focus of the COP27 conference which began on Nov. 6 and ends Nov. 18 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Rich nations on Tuesday pledged to raise at least $20 billion to help wean Indonesia off coal and reach carbon neutrality by 2050, a decade earlier than planned.
The US, Japan, Canada and six European countries signed the accord with Indonesia on the sidelines of the summit to ensure a “just power sector transition” away from a coal-dependent economy, according to an AFP report citing a White House announcement.
Under the deal, Indonesia, home to the world’s third-largest rainforest, has pledged to not only be carbon neutral by 2050, but to almost double its renewable energy generation by 2030.
On Monday, Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, called on G20 member states — responsible for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — to make additional efforts this decade to keep alive a target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Science tells us that global heating beyond that limit poses an existential threat to all life on threat. But global emissions, and temperatures, continue to rise,” he said in Bali.
He said he would make a “strong appeal” to G20 countries to “have a common plan to reach net zero (emissions) globally by 2050.”
In his remarks, he touted the benefits of a recently proposed pact aimed at ending the world’s dependence on fossil fuels while providing universal, affordable, sustainable energy for all.
“G20 leaders can make or break the Climate Solidarity Pact,” Guterres said. “Action — or inaction — by the G20 will determine whether every member of our human family has a chance to live sustainably and peacefully, on a healthy planet.”
He also urged G20 economies to adopt a Sustainable Development Goals stimulus package that will allow emerging economies to invest in healthcare, education, gender equality, and renewable energy.
He described the stimulus package as a “minimal and necessary” step to ease the food and energy crises.
Guterres knows full well how much to realistically expect from the gathering in Bali. Officials from the G20 countries who met in the same resort island last August were unable to agree on a joint communique, amid objections over language used on climate targets and the war in Ukraine.
The meeting had concluded with Indonesia, as the G20 chair, issuing only a summary of the forum’s “shared commitment and shared steps,” reflecting divisions between its members over how to tackle climate change.
Meanwhile, news from Egypt indicates that COP27 has entered its final week with rich carbon polluters and developing nations at loggerheads over how to speed up and fund reductions in emissions to slow global warming.
The standoff came with wealthy nations pressed into acknowledging the need to compensate emerging economies for accelerating climate change, and as total funding needs appear poised to run into trillions, rather than billions, of dollars.
“There is still a lot of work ahead of us,” Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister and COP27 president, said on Monday.
He added countries were still split on key issues as ministers join talks this week to seek consensus before the summit ends on Friday.
COP27 participants were watching for signals from the first face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping — representing the world’s top two polluting nations — at the G20 Summit.
Following the bilateral talks, the White House said that the two countries would resume climate cooperation, which China had halted in anger after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.
“The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts on these and other issues,” the White House said.
Switzerland, on behalf of a six-nation group that includes Mexico and South Korea, proposed to introduce an item on the official COP27 agenda to reinforce the goal of “limiting” global warming to 1.5 C.
Developed countries backed the proposal, but China and groups of developing nations rejected it over concerns that it would imply renegotiating the Paris Agreement, several delegates said.
For developing countries, the priority at COP27 is for wealthy nations to make good on pledges to provide $100 billion a year in aid for poorer countries to “green” their economies and build resilience against future impacts.
There are also deep divisions over calls to create a “loss and damage” fund through which rich polluters would compensate developing nations for destruction caused by climate-induced natural disasters.
Wealthy nations, fearful of creating an open-ended liability regime, agreed only this year to include this topic on the agenda.
Developing nations are calling for the creation of a separate facility, but the US and the EU have said they favor using existing financial channels.
On the positive side of the ledger, G7 countries and nearly 60 nations most vulnerable to climate change launched a scheme on Monday aimed at providing financial support for communities battered by climate disasters, with more than $200 million of initial funding.
Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s finance minister and chair of the V20 group of nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, said the scheme “is long overdue.”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo described the deal for his country to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 as a model that could be replicated in other countries too.
“Indonesia is committed to using our energy transition to achieve a green economy and drive sustainable development,” he said in a statement.
“We are grateful for the cooperation and the support from our international partners to realize its full implementation that will accelerate this transition.”
Sponsors of the pact said Jakarta had committed to an ambitious shift to clean energy in return for $10 billion in public sector finance and $10 billion in private funding over three to five years.
The financing included “grants, concessional loans, market-rate loans, guarantees and private investments” for Indonesia, which has one of the largest coal reserves in the world.
Indonesia had questioned the terms of a 2021 deal to end deforestation by 2030, which it had signed along with more than 100 other countries, arguing it would hinder its economic development.
Indonesia is committed to nusing our energy transition to achieve a green economy and drive sustainable government.