Climate gridlock feared at G20 summit

BANGKOK, Sept 08 (AFP): G20 leaders meet this weekend during what is likely the hottest year in human history, but hopes are slim that the divided grouping can agree ambitious action on the crisis.
Geopolitical tensions that have seen Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping skip the talks mean the group is unlikely to even achieve the traditional final communique, let alone robust climate pledges.
That sets up a "potentially catastrophic" failure by nations that account for 80 percent of global power sector emissions, Amnesty International warned Thursday.
And it could lower expectations ahead of crucial COP28 climate talks that begin in November.
Three key climate issues will be on the table in New Delhi: a push to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030; weaning economies off fossil fuels -- particularly coal; and finance for the green transition in developing countries.
The build-up to the summit suggests a difficult path to progress on any of those.
In July, G20 energy ministers failed to even mention coal in their final statement, let alone agree a phase down roadmap, and there was no progress on the renewables goal. "The communiques that have come out are woefully inadequate," UN climate change chief Simon Stiell told AFP this week.
The backdrop to the talks could hardly be starker: the EU's climate monitor this week said this year is likely to be the hottest in human history, with UN chief Antonio Guterres declaring: "climate breakdown has begun."
"Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope," he warned.
Evidence of that has been abundant, with devastating flooding, record heat and ferocious wildfires across much of the world in recent months.
G20 countries account for 85 percent of global GDP and a similar amount of global climate warming emissions, making action in the forum crucial to real progress.