Don’t expect any political leadership regarding the global climate crisis to come out of the G20 Summit being held in Osaka, Japan later this week.
According to the Financial Times, which saw the draft communiqué prepared by the Japanese government, the document avoids phrases such as “global warming” and “decarbonization” in an apparent capitulation to the demands of the U.S.
Actually, it has more to do with President Donald Trump and his attempt to make a great trade deal with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Financial Times cited analysts as saying Japan was trying to “placate” the Trump administration on that front. And we all know what will happen if those trade talks fail – Trump tariffs galore on the auto sector.
Coal subsidies will not be addressed
However, what will happen, and more to the point, what will not happen at the G20 Summit is what is important to all the world.
On September 25, 2009, Reuters reported that the G20 nations, at a two-day summit meeting in Pittsburgh had agreed to phase out subsidies for oil and other carbon dioxide-spewing fossil fuels in the “medium term” as part of efforts to combat global warming.
The agreement was backed by all of the G20 including Russia, India, and China. The G20 is comprised of major rich and emerging economies In their statement, they said energy and finance ministers would develop timeframes and strategies for implementing the subsidies phase-out and report back at the next G20 summit.
To be very blunt – The world has been lied to by our global governments. In a detailed report published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and others, it is revealed that “G20 governments continue to support coal through US$27.6 billion in domestic and international public finance, US$15.4 billion in fiscal support, and US$20.9 billion in state-owned enterprise (SOE) investments per year across the G20.”
According to The Guardian, Prime Minister Abe, in a statement in September 2018 said, “Climate change can be life-threatening to all generations … We must take more robust actions and reduce the use of fossil fuels.”
However, and this is an important point – The three biggest financial supporters of coal are China, India, and Japan, in that order.
These countries are followed by South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia, and the US. Even in the UK, which goes many days and weeks without the use of coal-fired plants generating electricity, it was revealed in a parliamentary report earlier this month that the country is investing billions of pounds to help build fossil fuel power plants overseas.
“It has now been 10 years since the G20 committed to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, yet astonishingly some governments are actually increasing the amount they give to coal power plants,” said Ipek Gençsü, a research fellow at ODI and lead author of the report.
So with the summit opening this Friday, many countries around the world will be looking to these countries for some kind of leadership, particularly in light of the worsening climate crisis. Many will probably think the G20 Summit is nothing more than a joke, a meaningless meeting of the richest countries on Earth who are saying to all of us they can do what they want as long as they are making money.
Green campaigners and climate activists are planning protests in Japan against the G20’s coal subsidies and in nations where coal plants are being funded.
Flora Santos, the president of the Oriang women’s movement in the Philippines, where China subsidizes coal-fired power plants, had this to say: “We cannot continue to live in peril and in the face of ever-worsening threats to the survival and security of our families. The expansion of the coal industry and projects must stop as soon as possible.”
