The Local weather Coverage Factbook evaluates the progress made by every G-20 nation in three major coverage areas: phasing out assist for fossil fuels, placing a worth on emissions, and implementing climate-risk disclosure.
The report goals to extend transparency and inform coverage priorities forward of the G-20 Summit in Indonesia and COP27 local weather convention in Egypt, the place a lot of the dialogue will concentrate on learn how to notice the numerous pledges and targets introduced at COP26 in Glasgow a 12 months in the past.
“Governments proceed to subsidize fossil fuels – undermining the pledges they’ve made, harming public well being, and shrinking our possibilities of avoiding the worst impacts of local weather change,” Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Secretary-Common’s Particular Envoy on Local weather Ambition and Options and founding father of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, stated.
“We have to dramatically pace up the shift to wash vitality and away from coal and different fossil fuels, and this report highlights a few of the most necessary steps governments can take,” Bloomberg stated.
The share of G-20 fossil-fuel assist allotted to coal is slowly shrinking – from 4.1% in 2016, to 2.9% in 2021. However coal nonetheless attracted a complete of $20 billion of presidency assist in 2021. That is shocking on condition that a lot of the hassle to part out fossil-fuel assist has targeted on coal, together with pledges introduced at current G-20 summits and COP26.
Whereas 2021 estimates are provisional, they counsel fossil assist spending surged 16%. This spike was not merely on account of financial restoration and better vitality use as 2021’s whole was 5% greater than 2016, a 12 months wherein vitality use was roughly degree. In actual fact, the 2021 enhance was pushed by a 16% enhance in assist to fossil-fuel producers and utilities.
“The G-20 and G-7 governments have introduced a variety of seemingly extra formidable commitments to part out fossil-fuel subsidies,” stated Victoria Cuming, head of worldwide coverage at BloombergNEF and lead creator of the factbook. “However they all the time appear to incorporate imprecise language and caveats, giving governments wiggle room to interpret these pledges as they need. BNEF’s evaluation exhibits that there appears to be little proof of these nations delivering on their guarantees.”
On the nationwide degree, China could have accounted for the most important share (26%) of G-20 fossil-fuel assist in 2020 (the newest 12 months for which country-level information is obtainable). BNEF famous it’s properly beneath different G-20 members on a per-capita foundation – at $111 in 2020 in contrast with, for instance, Saudi Arabia ($1,433), Argentina ($734) and Canada ($512). It additionally scaled again this assist by 12% over 2016-20, whereas Canada greater than doubled fossil-fuel assist over that interval. The US has the bottom per-capita whole out of the G-20 (at $34 in 2020) however supplied 57% extra of such subsidies in 2020 relative to 2016.
To successfully lead the phaseout of coal and different fossil fuels, G-20 nations should introduce a significant carbon worth, BNEF stated, in order that corporations and customers pay for his or her greenhouse-gas emissions. In whole, 12 member nations of G-20 have nationwide carbon pricing. Europe and Canada stay G-20 leaders for sturdy carbon insurance policies. Specifically, costs are near or far above the extent wanted to restrict world warming to 2C above pre-industrial ranges by the tip of the century.
The World Financial institution estimates this vary to be $40-80 per metric tonne by 2020 and $50-100 by 2030. The opposite G-20 nations with nationwide schemes have a mean carbon worth of $8/tonne and the US, which has a number of state-level packages, has a mean worth of $9/tonne. Most of those packages are much less efficient as they cowl such a small share of nationwide emissions or provide concessions which might be too beneficiant to contributors.
The third precedence space, BNEF asserted, is to implement climate-risk disclosure by corporations and monetary establishments. Policymakers are extra loudly than ever voicing concern that local weather change poses main dangers to monetary stability. Nevertheless, out of the G-20 nations, solely the EU and UK have handed legal guidelines or laws to mandate particular, nationwide climate-risk disclosure for traders, whereas the US has issued a proposal to take this step. As a substitute, most G-20 governments have solely gone as far as launching pilot tasks and issuing voluntary steering paperwork.
These could mark a change in rhetoric and assist enhance monetary market contributors’ capabilities with out being too disruptive for present market practices. BNEF famous that this kind of voluntary method permits establishments to delay motion.
The entire Local weather Coverage Factbook is right here.
