Group of 20 (G20)
Australia’s G20 presidency is almost over. The Leader’s Summit in Brisbane on 15-16 November 2014 was notable for forcing climate change to the top of the agenda despite Australia’s resistance. With the US-China deal to reduce emissions and significant contributions by a number of countries to the Green Climate Fund, there looks to be real momentum towards a global agreement on post-2020 climate action at the Paris COP in December 2015.
Turkey takes over the G20 presidency on 1 December with PM Ahmet Davutoglu clearly committed to putting climate change high on the agenda: ‘on most issues we act as the heads of nation states, but on climate change we should act as the ministers of home affairs of humanity’ in dealing with ‘the biggest challenge to all of humanity’ (see Lowy Interpreter article listed below). After Turkey, comes China in 2016.
On fossil fuel subsidies, the Brisbane Communique says (again) that the G20 reaffirms ‘our commitment to rationalise and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, recognising the need to support the poor’. There are no signs of actual progress on this resolution dating from 2009, even on phasing out exploration subsidies which a new report values at $88 billion.
The G20 describes itself as the world’s premier forum for economic cooperation. Its members include the dominant economic powers of the post-war era (Canada, France, Italy, Japan, US, UK, Germany and Russia), the rapidly rising countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey) plus Australia, Saudi Arabia and the European Union.
Useful links
Turkey’s 2015 G20 agenda Lowy Institute Interpreter
Official G20 page
Civil 20 – civil society organisations
Business 20 – business groups
Heinrich Boell Foundation (North America) – critical analysis
Christine Milne on the G20 – G20 opportunities for Australia (July 2013). Not realised!
Explainers by Susan Harris Rimmer
Backgrounder to Australia’s Presidency
The Green Institute prepared an overview of Australia’s G20 presidency in January 2013 and a strategy which at that stage identified phasing out fossil fuel subsidies as a priority that would address climate change in a meaningful way and had been on the G20 agenda since 2009. The backgrounder remains reasonably current; the strategy sadly has run aground on the intransigence of a government single-mindedly committed to coal.
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