G20 environment chiefs ready fresh bid for climate deals

G20 environment ministers in India readied a fresh bid on Thursday to strike deals tackling climate change, days after heavy criticism for failing to agree on cutting fossil fuel use.

Environment chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies -- constituting more than 80 percent of both global GDP and CO2 emissions -- are focusing on critical topics including climate change adaption finance, biodiversity and principles for ocean-based economic activities.

Those agreed by environment ministers during their one-day conference on Friday will be signed off by leaders during a summit in New Delhi in September.

Global temperatures are hitting record highs, triggering floods, storms and heatwaves, climate experts say.

"The livelihoods of people are being destroyed," EU Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius told AFP late Wednesday, pointing to the "growing evidence on the ground of devastating climate impact", including in raging wildfires in Greece and Sicily.

Sinkevicius, who is attending the meeting in Chennai, said he wanted reforms to build the "resilience" of people but warned leaders must base decisions on scientific evidence.

"We live in an era of social media where you can be a scientist working for 20 years on climate change and where you can be just a populist, you know, fishing for votes," he said.

"And your opinions on social media will weigh very much the same."

Campaigners across the world were dismayed after G20 energy ministers failed at a July 22 meeting in Goa in India to agree on a roadmap to cut fossil fuel use.

It was seen as a blow to mitigation efforts and a win for some major oil producers, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, who have resisted a quick transition away from dirty fuels and were blamed by critics for a lack of progress at the crucial meeting.

It came despite G7 leaders agreeing in Hiroshima in May to "accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels".

Among those at the Chennai meeting is Sultan Al Jaber, president of the upcoming COP28 climate summit who also heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

He has been heavily criticised for an apparent conflict of interests because burning fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming.

"The world needs its leaders to unite, act and deliver; and that must start with the G20," Al Jaber and UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell said in a joint statement on Thursday.

"Those at the frontline of climate change need our support now, not in five years' time," they said, also calling for a tripling of global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Progress has so far been slow, with the G20 polarised by Russia's war in Ukraine and sharp divisions on key issues between the West and developing countries.

Many have tired of the rounds of conference talks and apparent lack of progress that followed the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.

"Negotiations are not going fast, I'm not going to hide that," Sinkevicius said. "We are already so many years after the Paris Agreement, it's time to implement it."

The G7 economies will also have to contend with a key demand of many developing countries, including India, for more finance to offset the impact of global warming on sectors such as agriculture and energy.

A report prepared for India's G20 presidency estimated the global cost of the energy transition at $4 trillion a year and emphasised the importance of low-cost financing for developing countries.

Some have pushed back against bracketing developing nations with countries such as India and China, both among the world's top five largest economies.

"When we talk about developing countries, we should not be referring to the situation in the 1990s," Sinkevicius said. "We definitely need to help the most vulnerable ones, who are already heavily affected."

India's environment and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav said Thursday the world was facing "critical challenges".

"We find ourselves at a pivotal moment -- a moment that holds potential to ignite action and introduce sustainable solutions that will safeguard the well-being of our planet and future generations," Yadav said in Chennai.