G-20 reaffirms support for keeping warming to 1.5 degrees amid alleged resistance at climate summit

The Group of 20 (G-20) large world economies is reaffirming its commitment to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as some countries allegedly want to back away from the target at a global climate summit.

“Noting the [United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] assessments that the impact of climate change will be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5°C compared with 2°C, we resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C,” said an official statement from the leaders of the G-20 nations. 

The leaders met in Bali, Indonesia, prior to the statement’s release.

The statement comes after U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry said that “a few” countries have resisted putting the 1.5 degree target into whatever agreement comes out of the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. 

The inclusion of the target in the G-20 statement may bolster its stature at COP27. The 1.5 degree target was set out in the Paris climate agreement. 

Surpassing the 1.5 degree warming target is expected to subject people to worse impacts from climate change. Analyses have shown that countries are not currently on target to limit warming to that level. 

The G-20 statement also reiterates the countries’ commitments to the “phasedown” of  “unabated” coal power — that is, coal power whose planet-warming emissions are not prevented from entering the atmosphere. 

The countries additionally said they would “increase” their efforts to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies.

Last year’s climate conference agreement called for the phasedown of coal and the elimination of “inefficient” fossil subsidies.   

The G-20 is made up of the U.S., China, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the European Union.