With only 124 days left for the COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, COP President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber on Friday urged G-20 nations to take a leadership role on climate action and said that their decisions would have an enormous influence on the outcomes for all countries.
Addressing the G-20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministerial Meeting in Chennai, Dr. Al Jaber expressed his concern that his call at last week’s meeting in Goa to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 has “yet to find expression in G-20 outcomes,” despite its importance to the goal of keeping 1.5C within reach.
“As a group, the G-20 represents 85% of the world’s GDP and 80% of the world’s emissions. What you decide will have a huge influence on outcomes for everyone, everywhere,” Dr. Al Jaber told Ministers. “There is still time for the G-20 to show leadership and I am calling upon all of you to work with your leaders to drive global climate action in this critical decade,” he said.
Dr. Al Jaber called upon all parties to show solidarity and demonstrate commitment to the U.N. Secretary General’s Climate Solidarity Pact and Acceleration Agenda. “Doubling adaptation finance by 2025 is a critical first step but we need to look at directing a solid proportion of all climate finance towards adaptation responses,” he said and added that the more that was invested in adaptation, the greater the collective resilience to climate impacts would be.
