Berlin- 3 July 2017 – G20 countries have stepped up green finance, but their investment in fossil fuels remains so high that the “well below 2 degree” warming limits set in the Paris Agreement will be missed by a wide margin, says this year’s “Brown to Green” Report from Climate Transparency.
The “Brown to Green Report 2017: the G20 transition to a low carbon economy” is the third annual stocktake of the G20’s climate efforts by the Climate Transparency global partnership, released today ahead of this year’s meeting of G20 leaders in Hamburg. It has been developed by a group of experts from the G20 countries Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and the UK.
The report provides the most comprehensive – yet concise – overview on G20 countries’ transition to a low-carbon economy. It rates their performance in emissions reductions, climate policy, finance, and decarbonisation, and provides graphic factsheets on each country.
“The G20 economies are becoming more efficient – they are beginning to decarbonise, but not enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Alvaro Umaña, Co-Chair of Climate Transparency and former environment minister of Costa Rica.
“The G20 countries use energy more efficiently and use cleaner energy sources, but energy consumption and the economies have grown. So the overall growth of greenhouse gas emissions is slowing, but is not yet in decline. Renewables are on the rise, but coal and other fossil fuels still dominate the G20’s energy mix,” said Niklas Höhne of NewClimate Institute.
“After President Trump resigned from the Paris agreement and withdraw important national climate policies like the Clean Power Plan, experts give the US much lower ratings for policy performance. The pro-Paris reactions in a lot of States and cities within the US are not reflected in the ratings,” said Jan Burck from Germanwatch, co-author of the study.
