G20’s failure to publicly support fossil fuel transition disrupted COP29 talks

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The G20’s leaders in Rio did not directly mention the need to move away from fossil fuels in their statement, raising fears among key negotiators at the UN COP29 summit in Baku that Donald Trump’s US election victory is putting the brakes on climate action.

At the UN COP28 summit in Dubai last year, almost 200 countries agreed to transition their energy systems away from fossil fuels by 2050, and the G7 group of major economies reiterated that commitment in their leaders’ statement earlier this year.

Many climate ministers, negotiators and non-profit organizations COP29 In their statements after Trump’s election, they hoped that the G20 would signal strong support for the transition to fossil fuels; The campaign slogan was “drill baby drill”, referring to increased oil and gas production.

The expectation is G20 The leaders would make a direct reference to moving away from fossil fuels in their statement in Rio, after receiving the support of finance, foreign affairs and climate ministers from the group in October.

Instead, the G20 statement stated that countries “welcome and fully subscribe to the ambitious and balanced outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, particularly the UAE Consensus”, while making no explicit reference to the agreed shift away from fossil fuels .

The removal of this phrase from the longer draft version of the declaration caused great upset among some of the chief negotiators of major countries at the COP29 climate summit in Baku; The first week of fighting here was over how to take forward last year’s fossil fuel deal. .

Many chief negotiators have said that no direct reference to fossil fuels would make negotiations in Baku more difficult. The two-week summit, which will end on Friday, was already overshadowed by the Trump election. Argentina’s decision The retreat of the negotiating team led by Trump ally Javier Milei, as well as the aggressive pro-oil and gas stance of host country President Ilham Aliyev.

“(COP29) is a fragile enough process,” a G7 negotiator in Baku said on Tuesday, adding that the lack of a clear statement by the G20 meant “the slope of our escalation this week has become even steeper.”

Ahead of the Rio meeting, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the world was “waiting for strong signals that climate action is essential for the world’s largest economies.”

“In turbulent times and a crumbling world, G20 leaders must make it loud and clear that international cooperation remains humanity’s best and only chance to escape global warming. “There is no other choice,” he said.

Various countries blamed each other for not including the move away from fossil fuels in the G20 document. A senior climate official said the phrase was initially removed due to confusion, suggesting inexperienced government aides did not understand the vital importance of its inclusion. Some G7 country officials tried unsuccessfully to press for the re-release of the agreed-upon G20 October text on Monday, two people familiar with the discussions said.

“There are enough accusations to spread around,” they said. “The Brazilian presidency did a poor job (and) the G7 did not equip themselves very well.”

The G20 statement strengthened climate finance negotiations at COP29, one of the main objectives of the Baku summit, by highlighting the need to reform global financial institutions and debt restructuring to provide funds to developing countries tackling climate change.

While this is welcome, Luca Bergamaschi, director of ECCO, a climate think tank, said it was undermined by the lack of a specific statement on moving away from fossil fuels. “Without a clear path away from fossil fuels, the world will continue down a dangerous path.”

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