Crunch time: Climate talks get boost from G20 communique

SHARM EL SHEIKH: Support for an ambitious global warming deal by world leaders during a G20 meeting in Bali on Wednesday has given a lift to climate negotiations at the COP27 summit running in parallel in Egypt.

The boost came as talks among nearly the 200 nations at the resort town of Sharm el Sheikh risked stalling out over core issues like climate finance and limiting planetary warming at 1.5°C, the point at which scientists fear far more severe climate change impacts will be unleashed.

A G20 declaration on Wednesday said “we will play our part fully in implementing” last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact, under which countries pledged to limit the rise in global temperatures to [1.5°C] above pre-industrial times.

“We resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. This will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries,” the leaders said in a declaration at the end of their Bali summit.

Government ministers are returning to Egypt to take over negotiations at this year’s United Nations climate talks, providing diplomats with the political backing they need to clinch credible agreements that would help prevent disastrous levels of warming in the coming decades.

Talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh got off to a plodding start and are behind the pace of previous meetings with three days left before the scheduled close on

Friday.

But a small thaw in relations between the US and China at the G20 meeting in Bali has boosted hopes that the world’s top two polluters can help get a deal over the line in Egypt.

United States climate envoy John Kerry confirmed on Wednesday that he and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua had resumed formal talks after they were frozen three months ago by China in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.

Asked what his goal for the outcome of the meeting was, Kerry was cautious, however.

“We’ll have to see, it’s a late start,” he said.

Delegates have been haggling over whether to restate the 2015 Paris accord’s headline goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and the rules countries set themselves for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Officials from developing nations, meanwhile, are pushing for rich countries to make good on pledges of further financial aid for those struggling to cope with global warming.

One significant aspect of that could be payments for ‘loss and damage’ resulting from climate change, which developed countries have long resisted for fear of being held financially liable for the carbon dioxide they’ve pumped into the atmosphere for decades.