Briefing for G20 Leader Summit

G20 Leaders will meet in New Delhi, India on the 9-10 September, right before the 78th UN General Assembly (12-30 September). With the opportunity for the G20 to set an ambitious tone ahead of COP28 later this year, countries are still wrangling over key – and basic – commitments on climate action.

The climate crisis as it intensifies in pace and scale is exacerbating other crises such as poverty and inequality, food and water insecurity and driving ecological and biodiversity loss. It adversely impacts human rights, as well as non-human life, through extreme weather such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, and slow onset events such as sea-level rise.  

Besides the common threat posed by climate change, the world continues to reel under the aftershocks of the COVID pandemic. Further,  the ongoing war in Ukraine by Russia threatens the complete breakdown of multilateralism and rule-based order in the world. The right to health is adversely impacted as people are exposed to an increasing risk of infectious and non-communicable diseases, as well as through fundamental changes to the climate system, water supplies and food systems. 

At the G20 New Delhi Summit, agreements will need to be reached on ambitious climate, nature, energy and climate finance outcomes that fully respect human rights. These agreements should aim to bridge the gaps toward achieving a 1.5°C pathway through emissions reduction, providing greater support to action for adaptation and to address loss and damage, protecting and restoring nature and reforming food systems, and mobilizing trillions of dollars of finance for a just and equitable transition.

More specifically, leaders should demonstrate consensus on key commitments for the climate agenda, of keeping 1.5°C within reach, fast, fair and permanent phase-out of all fossil fuels and associated subsidies, accelerating green transitions – including human rights compliant protection and restoration of forests and other ecosystems and the reform of food systems – at home and globally by putting forward revised 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), aligned with the 1.5°C limit, ahead of COP28. The collective NDCs must include pathways for just and equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas in line with 1.5°C before 2050, with significant reductions to be achieved to reduce emissions by at least 43% by 2030 compared to 2019.

It is under these circumstances that the group of the world’s largest economic powers—both wealthier and emerging economies under the umbrella of G20 countries—must send a strong political signal in 2023 and commit to act decisively against the common and most urgent threat facing humanity.

We at CAN South Asia (part of the wider CAN International Network) uphold the principles of just and equitable transitions, and we demand the following of the G20 presidency and participating countries to get the world back on track to limit global warming below 1.5°C as promised by countries under the Paris Agreement. 

In this regard, G20 countries must: 

• In accordance with Article 4.4 of the Paris Agreement, wealthier countries must commit to their highest possible ambition in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and economy-wide targets covering all sectors and all gases including non-CO2 gases and methane. G20 leaders must commit to an equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels and set a target year for ending all fossil fuel subsidies by  2030 and along with an agreement on raising ambition towards tripling RE installed power capacity per annum by 2030 while reducing total final energy demand by at least a quarter by 2050 compared to today. While promoting new and innovative technologies is crucial for accelerated energy transition, G20 countries must avoid false technologies like carbon capture utilization and storage  (CCUS) and nuclear energy.
• Wealthier countries of the G20 must fully deliver on their commitment of USD 100 billion per year till 2025 and collectively contribute to a doubling of the GCF second replenishment and a transformational new Climate Finance goal under NCQG negotiations.. The G20 leaders must commit themselves to addressing the debt vulnerabilities of low and middle-income countries in an effective, comprehensive and systematic manner, including by supporting efforts to strengthen initiatives like the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR) and paving the way for effective implementation of the Common Framework for Debt Treatment and the vulnerability assessment framework in a timely manner. The G20 must recognize the need for accelerated and affordable access to transition finance to the global south and therefore must commit itself to making International Financing Institutions (IFIs) and Multilateral Development Banks ( MDBs) fit for purpose by supporting timely reform of the international financial architecture and enabling the implementation of frameworks like the “Roadmap for Implementation of Recommendations of the G20 Independent Review of MDBs’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks (CAF)”.  Based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, G20 countries must also commit to providing adaptation finance on par with mitigation finance and operationalize the new Loss and Damage Fund urgently and meaningfully at COP28.
• All G20 countries must fully deliver on their collective commitments towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. Commit to ending deforestation (and the conversion of other intact ecosystems) by 2030 and restoring nature in line with the targets of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity (KMGB) Framework, while fully respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and affected local communities.  G20 leaders must champion human-rights-compliant reforms to food systems that achieve global goals for nutrition, climate and nature, including promoting more sustainable patterns of consumption; investing in ecologically beneficial farming and crop diversification, and supporting the contribution of small-holder farmers towards food security and sustainability.