Macron: G20 conclusions on climate ‘insufficient’

This weekend’s G20 summit in New Delhi produced insufficient outcomes on climate change, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday (10 September), blaming countries that want to keep fossil fuels in the global energy mix.

Three days before the summit, Macron’s cabinet told a press conference that the summit is an opportunity to “consolidate the gains” made on climate change and make “firm commitments to phase out coal”.

But the results are “insufficient”, Macron said on Sunday during his post-G20 press conference, claiming that little had been done on coal as the summit did not result in a medium or long-term clear exit from fossil fuels.

He added that we need to move “much faster” away from coal worldwide by 2030.

Many G20 countries are still heavily dependent on coal – China, India, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, Australia and the United States, with most G20 countries also heavily depending on oil and gas.

On oil, Macron called for a phase-out before 2050. But “I see a discourse emerging which would say that we could continue to live very sustainably beyond 2040-2045 with oil. […] That’s not true,” Macron told a press conference.

The French president bluntly attacked Saudi Arabia, slamming its political positions that are in “no way established by [climate] science”.

“I’m very concerned about the spirit that is beginning to prevail”, with “a too-easy discourse that is taking hold among certain emerging countries to say that only the richest countries have a [climate] responsibility”, Macron added.

With three months before COP28 set for 30 November, Macron’s words resonate strongly with fears of a new global mass without an “increase in ambition” for the international climate.

The event will be held in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer. The objectives that will emerge from COP28 may be played out on a “very opportunistic ridgeline, depending on whether or not anyone actually produces fossil fuels”, he concluded.

(Paul Messad | EURACTIV.fr)