While the UN said the day before that July 2023 would be the hottest month ever recorded in the world, the main countries responsible for global warming failed to agree on the main measure to limit its consequences. .
On Thursday July 27 and Friday July 28, the environment ministers of the most developed economies gathered in the coastal city of Chennai, India, for a G20 summit dedicated to environmental issues. The last day of this conference was devoted to finding an agreement on a cap on greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, largely responsible for the rise in global temperatures since pre-industrial times.
But the ax fell at the beginning of the afternoon: “We are not able to reach an agreement on the cap [des] emissions by 2025”, announced the French Minister for Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu. A failure linked, according to him, to the “complicated” positions of three countries: Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.
National interests as a priority
The reasons for this opposition have not been officially specified. In the absence of a joint communiqué, the Indian presidency of the G20 published a simple summary of the meeting mentioning the positions of the countries present. While he notes that “some members of the G20 have stressed the need for a global peak in emissions by 2025 at the latest”, he does not mention the refractory countries or their arguments.
However, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia are on everyone’s lips. According to the diplomat Adnan Amin quoted by AFP, if all the countries present “understand the gravity of the crisis”, the more refractory members failed to pass over their “immediate national interests”.
The three states cited by the French minister are indeed among the main emitters of greenhouse gases: Saudi Arabia and Russia are among the largest oil producers in the world, while China still depends on coal as its main source. of energy. Economic activities that would therefore oppose an objective to limit the consumption of these fossil fuels by 2025.
Chinese “tactics of destruction”
Beyond these national interests, the framework of the debates itself seems to pose a problem for China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In reaction to the failure of the negotiations, the FinancialTimes has indeed revealed that China had hardened its position compared to previous G20 meetings.
According to sources present in Chennai quoted by the American media, “China has argued that the G20 is an economic forum and [qu’il] should not be the place for climate change politics.” A position shared by Saudi Arabia.
In addition to rejecting a cap on greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, Beijing has also reportedly rejected a goal to halve those emissions by 2030 globally. Another source present at the negotiating table reports never-before-seen “tactics of destruction” of the debate, again according to the Financial Times.
Another Indian failure
The meeting was not, however, a complete failure: according to Associated Press, only 4 of the 68 discussion points did not find a common position. Other agreements have thus been made concerning the protection of land and oceans in the context of the fight against global warming.
Capping greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 was one of the most anticipated measures to slow the global rise in temperatures. A lack of consensus which also follows another Indian failure: at a summit in Goa on July 22, it was the turn of the energy ministers of the G20 countries to fail to agree on a timetable for reducing the use of fossil fuels.
The conclusion of the Chennai summit is therefore seen by environmental organizations as a new victory for the main producers of fossil fuels, while the commitments of the Paris climate agreements of 2015 are still not applied.
The G20 countries will meet despite everything for a last Indian summit in September, in New Delhi, to try one last time to find an agreement on the basis of the Chennai negotiations. A last chance meeting, before the next conference on climate change (COP 28) in Dubai next December.