New Delhi: The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, adopted unanimously by G20 member states Saturday, is a call for action on the prevailing global environmental crisis. It commits to fighting climate change, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, building an ocean-based economy and ensuring climate action that is gender-inclusive.
While reaffirming the goals set under the Paris Agreement, the declaration calls for strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth and the pursuit of development models that “leave no one behind”.
It also commits to facilitating financing for low-income countries for their energy transition needs. This comes as a big win for countries like India who have been pushing for richer countries to take more responsibility for their role in the global climate crisis.
“Just energy transitions can improve jobs and livelihoods, and strengthen economic resilience. We affirm that no country should have to choose. We will pursue development models that implement sustainable, inclusive and just transitions globally, while leaving no one behind,” reads the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration.
Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of Delhi-based think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), said India’s G20 presidency securing a consensus on the declaration on the first day of the summit amounted to a “historic moment”.
“A critical component of that is the ‘Green Development Pact for a Sustainable Future’, and I want to congratulate India’s presidency and also the G20 for coming together for this,” Ghosh told ThePrint. He added that equally important is the declaration’s focus on a clean sustainable, just, affordable, and inclusive energy transition.
“It is trying to bring the energy transition closer to people and the very economies and geographies where large infrastructure will be built for development but which also needs to be driven by clean energy infrastructure,” he said.
Ghosh underlined that India’s G20 presidency has been continuously raising the issue of funds to aid the energy transition in the Global South. “This highlighting of the trillions of dollars needed — both for clean energy investment and overall focus on SDGs — embeds the clean energy and climate action components into the broader SDG agenda,” he said.
According to him, another key component of the declaration is its emphasis on ocean-based ‘Blue Economy’.
“This is to not only acknowledge the role our oceans play in regulating the climate system but also to understand how sustainable use of our ocean-based resources has to be done well in advance of us damaging this critical resource and then trying to clean it up,” he told ThePrint.
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Emphasis on Paris Agreement goal
The declaration reflects India’s long-held stance that a significant portion of the cost of climate action should be borne by developed countries. During the inauguration of the India Pavilion at the COP21 in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged affluent nations to shoulder more responsibility in the battle against climate change, while also stating that India did not create the problem but is suffering its consequences.
The declaration too recognises that developing countries need to be supported in their transition to low emissions. It adds that member countries “will work towards facilitating access to low-cost financing for developing countries, for existing as well as new and emerging clean and sustainable energy technologies and for supporting the energy transitions”.
A May 2023 report by the UAE-based intergovernmental body International Renewable Energy Agency titled ‘Low-cost finance for the energy transition’ estimates that the world needs an annual investment of over $4.4 trillion to “raise the overall share of renewable energy in the primary energy mix to 75 percent”. This transition, the report suggests, will help achieve the goal envisaged in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to less than 1.5°C of the pre-industrial levels.
Further, while reaffirming the need to tackle climate change by implementing the Paris Agreement, the declaration adopts the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances.
“We highlight the importance of ambitious action on all pillars of the Paris Agreement, taking into account the best available science,” it states.
Further, the declaration reiterates member states’ “resolve to pursue further efforts to limit the increase (in global warming) to 1.5°C”, in light of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments that impacts of “climate change will be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5°C compared with 2°C”.
The declaration also states that in order to achieve a country’s economic goals, while preventing further environmental degradation, member states acknowledge the critical role played by the circular economy — an economy that relies on maximising reuse and recycling and zero waste initiatives.
In this regard, the declaration thanks the Indian presidency for launching Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Industry Coalition (RECEIC).
It also takes note of India’s initiative to establish the Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre guided by the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Gender-inclusive climate action
Acknowledging the disproportionate impact of climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and pollution on women, the declaration asserts that accelerating climate action “must have gender equality at its core”.
To that end, the declaration says G20 “will support and increase women’s participation, partnership, decision-making and leadership in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster risk reduction strategies and policy frameworks on environmental issues”.
Member states, it adds, will also support gender-responsive and environment-resilient solutions, including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) solutions, to build resilience to the impact of climate change and environmental degradation.
Ocean-based economy
While committing to conserve, protect, restore the world’s oceans, G20 member states in the declaration commit to sustainably using resources from marine ecosystems.
In furtherance of this goal, the declaration pledges support for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), within the Antarctic Treaty system, to “establish a representative system of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the CCAMLR Convention area based on the best available scientific evidence”.
The declaration also vows to end plastic pollution and to build further on the G20 Marine Litter Action Plan.
Harnessing AI
As AI becomes more and more ubiquitous, the declaration endeavours to leverage AI for the public good by solving challenges in a responsible, inclusive and human-centric manner, while protecting people’s rights and safety.
“To unlock the full potential of AI, equitably share its benefits and mitigate risks, we will work together to promote international cooperation and further discussions on international governance for AI,” it reads.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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