G20 Foundation Publications Turkey 2015 | Page 106

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CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABILITY
Tony de Brum, Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of the
Marshall Islands
G20 HOLDS KEYS TO OUR
SAFE CLIMATE FUTURE
As G20 leaders gather in Antalya,
they will have on their minds what
promises to be the most important
global meeting of a generation – the
Paris Climate Change Conference.
In 2008, G20 leaders met in Washington in a
bid to bring the global economy back from the
brink of collapse. The consequences of failure
in Paris would be no less dire, and the impacts
surely more tragic.
Maria de Fatima Monteiro Jardim,
Minister of Environment of Angola
which is the Chair of the Least
Developed Countries
After years of diplomatic momentum-building,
the prospects are good for adopting a new
global climate change agreement in Paris.
More than two-thirds of the countries of
the world, including all G20 members, have
presented their proposed post-2020 emission
reduction targets for eventual inscription in the
Paris Agreement. And perhaps even more
importantly, we have all sectors of the global
economy on board. Almost every company,
every city and every community now accepts
the need to act.
While the momentum is strong, there is no
escaping the fact that the targets on the table
are still falling way short – we are still on track
for around 3 C or more of global warming. This
would not only spell the end for some of the
world’s low-lying island states and vulnerable
coastal states, and least developed countries,
but it would also unleash the biggest ever
breakdown in global security, and gradually
drag the world economy into a downward
spiral from which recovery would be very
difficult, if not impossible. To get us back on
track, the Paris Agreement must therefore be
designed for “ambition”.
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To do this, the Paris Agreement must first build
on the G7 Summit in June and signal a clear
break from the past by setting a common
goal to accelerate the transition away from
fossil fuels, and to fully decarbonize the world