G20 environment ministers have pledged to adopt new climate targets within the next three months, following recent negotiations in Naples. Ministers agreed to boost their climate targets, known as “nationally determined contributions”, ahead of the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. However, the ministers failed to reach an agreement on phasing out coal or removing subsidies for fossil fuels, because of opposition from Russia, China, India and Saudi Arabia. In the final communique, the G20 countries all agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5oC since pre-industrial times and said they would “accelerate actions to achieve this temperature limit” during the 2020s. Previous statements have been linked to limiting warming to 2oC, an easier target with much bigger climate impacts.

Posted by

Bloomberg