World leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, after Theresa May urged them to do more on climate change. The prime minister called on the G20 countries to set targets for net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, 19 pledged to meet their targets set in the 2015 Paris agreement. The US did not sign up. The UK is the first country to enshrine in law a commitment to be a net zero emitter of CO2 by 2050.
BBC 29th June 2019 read more »
Theresa May has urged countries to be more ambitious in tackling the climate crisis after Donald Trump reiterated his determination to ditch the Paris accord. The prime minister led a session on the environment at the G20 summit in Osaka, which will be one of her final appearances on the world stage. In the G20 communique, which was agreed after many hours of wrangling among the “sherpas”, who represent the group’s member states, 19 of the 20 reiterated their commitment to the Paris accord. The final wording echoed a statement from the last G20 summit, in Buenos Aires, but government sources suggested some countries, including the US, India and China, had tried to water it down. The US president had sought to excise the reference to the Paris agreement from the communique altogether, with the help of several other countries, reportedly including Brazil and Turkey. May said she was pleased there was a communique at all.
Guardian 29th June 2019 read more »
Leaders of the world’s biggest economies at the G20 summit in Japan have resisted pressure from Donald Trump to water down commitments to fight climate change. The US president is understood to have been pressing states including Brazil, Turkey, Australia and Saudi Arabia to join him in keeping any reference to the Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions out of the summit communique. At one point it seemed possible that the leaders would be unable to agree a final statement at all. French president Emmanuel Macron, the architect of the climate deal, reportedly warned he would refuse to sign off a joint statement unless it was included. But the communique eventually agreed at the conclusion of the two-day gathering in Osaka repeated earlier commitments by 19 of the G20 members to the “irreversibility” of the Paris accord and its full implementation.
Independent 29th June 2019 read more »
Theresa May failed to convince Donald Trump to shift his stance on climate change during her last hurrah on the world stage yesterday. The two leaders clashed behind the scenes on the final day of the G20 summit. The US president snubbed May’s attempt to get world leaders to “raise their ambition” on climate change as he refused to reverse his position on the landmark 2016 Paris agreement committing world leaders to limit warming by 1.5C. America was the only country not to recommit itself to the Paris accord at the summit in the Japanese port city of Osaka — despite May pushing for the “strongest wording we can deliver”. Trump offered a robust defence of his scepticism about renewable energy and his opposition to the Paris accord: “It doesn’t always work with a windmill. When the wind goes off, the plant isn’t working. “It doesn’t always work with solar because solar’s just not strong enough, and a lot of them want to go to wind, which has caused a lot of problems.”
Times 30th June 2019 read more »
Times 29th June 2019 read more »
Trump snubs climate change accord at G20 despite plea from Theresa May.
The i News 29th June 2019 read more »
Telegraph 29th June 2019 read more »