World’s top 20 economies not doing enough to fight climate change, says consortium of think tanks

Paris Agreement pledges to cut emissions need to be six times greater if global warming is to be kept below 2 degrees Celsius, says Climate Transparency

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The Eiffel Tower lights up with the slogan"Action Now"before the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December, 2015. Photo: AP

Published: 11:00am, 5 Sep 2016Updated: 11:35am, 6 Jul 2017

G20 countries are not doing enough to mitigate climate change and must work harder, climate experts urged in Beijing as leaders of the world’s 20 major economies gathered in Hangzhou.

The Group of 20 (G20) economies must ratchet up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, shift away from investment in coal towards renewable energy and reduce fossil fuel subsidies.

Current pledges made by the 20 countries, which account for 75 per cent of global carbon emissions, fall far short of a target set by last year’s Paris Agreement to keep the rise in average global temperature “well below 2 degrees Celsius”, said a report by Climate Transparency, a consortium of think tanks.

Experts in the consortium also urged G20 leaders to use the international forum as a complementary platform to the 195-nation United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to lock in progress made at last year’s Paris conference.

“The G20 has proven that it can be nimble and take action on economic issues, so we’re looking to these countries to do the same for the climate,” said Alvaro Umana, the former environment and energy minister of Costa Rica who is co-chair of Climate Transparency.