A Modi-Macron climate-correction moment needed at G7

But now there is opportunity for introducing a correction factor. A Modi- Macron moment could happen during the G-7 at their proposed bilateral meeting. Macron in 2018 declared a carbon tax. In the 2019-20 Indian budget, the Modi government has declared an additional tax on petrol and diesel, equivalent to carbon tax

The seas are rising relentlessly but not the world leaders. Young people are on the streets protesting against inaction, but heads of states huddled together in Osaka, Japan, for the G-20 met with facile jokes, embarrassing handshakes and posed smiles. The agenda for the 14th G-20 summit was loaded with issues of trade and tariffs, free flow of digital data, 5G technology, terrorism, fugitive economic offenders, empowerment of women and slowdown of the global economy. Deliberation on the existential threat for planet Earth posed by climate crises barely found space.

Against the shocking news of wild fires, heat waves and flash floods, climate issues were neither discussed nor prioritized the way it demanded. Growth-obsessed and trade-centred countries in the G-20 remained focussed on economy and not on ecology which dictates the economy.

There was an exception: In the bilateral meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with a special appearance by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, both leaders committed to stronger action on the growing threat of climate change. Macron reportedly refused to sign the G-20 communique that did not highlight the climate crisis. The 45th G-7 summit (of seven advanced global economies) will be held on August 24–26 in the town of Biarritz in France, under the French presidency. After 2000, when it was realised that India and China would advancing faster than expected, the G-7 agreed to specially invite five more countries, including India and China, for their summit outreach.

Macron, the host, has put the fight against inequality on top of this year’s G-7. Macron’s agenda recognises that the climate crisis has its indelible link with inequality which in turn has an axis to terrorism. Climate change hits vulnerable populations even harder, creating more inequality.

“It heaps inequality on inequality and insecurity on insecurity”, says the G-7 preparatory document. Climate Change is poised to be back as a major priority of the G-7, apart from taxes and terrorism.

The four environmental priorities in the agenda are:

· Scientific warnings and international action on biodiversity and climate · Inclusive ecological transition · Tangible solutions for the climate and biodiversity

· Finance for the preservation of biodiversity

These priorities have emerged from scientific consensus in major reports of UN bodies. The first, ‘The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 deg C’, was by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The message from that report was very clear, that temperature the must be limited to 1.5 deg C to avoid disastrous consequences to coastal areas, island countries and the economy.

To avoid such damage the world needs to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by 45% by 2030 (from the 2010 levels) and 100% by 2050. That would need much more ambitious pledges by the countries than the promises they submitted for the Paris Climate Agreement. The report also said that the global average temperature rise has already reached near 1 degree C and, with the current speed of action, the additional rise of half a degree is just about 12 years away. The second landmark report was by Inter-governmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the UN’s expert nature panel. It reported that the scale and rapid speed of decline of ecosystems on which our economic growth depends is unprecedented in human history. But now there is opportunity for introducing a correction factor. A Modi- Macron moment could happen during the G-7 at their proposed bilateral meeting. Macron in 2018 declared a carbon tax. In the 2019-20 Indian budget, the Modi government has declared an additional tax on petrol and diesel, equivalent to carbon tax. Both Modi and Macron launched the International Solar Alliance that can be a potential gamechanger in clean-energy solutions. A Modi and Macron moment during the G-7 outreach could then be the correction factor.