8th September 20239th September 2023 mathew carr

Africa gets climate plan; will big nations, UNFCCC follow latest G20 permanent member? (1)

Sept. 8-9, 2023: CarrZee: Given the urgency of the climate crisis, the G20 should endorse the African climate plan this weekend, but probably won’t.

Two proposals of many from an African climate summit held earlier this week (full doc below):

The business groups in the G20 seem to be on board, at least in public. See this related recommendation from the B20 grouping (see doc below):

Policy action 2.3: Develop harmonised international carbon markets for monitoring and reporting emissions, accounting, transparency, and environmental integrity To enhance international carbon markets, explore harmonized standards based on common but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities of G20 nations, promoting emissions reduction through cost-effective mechanisms.

Also see the link to source doc and FT snips below.

The Africa Union is attending the G20 this weekend, was invited by hosts India and will become permanent members of the group — a key move in my opinion.

UNFCCC talks seem a more likely and credible place for a final endorsement…in December.

Leaders might want to decide a special way in the UN to consider the plan — to prevent a few countries from blocking it. Two thirds of countries, perhaps?

UNFCCC rules mean decisions made in that forum generally need to be unanimous.

Those who don’t want to join can stay out, including the US, Russia. The potentially non-global nature of it is indicated by the square brackets in the first snip above (around the the word global to be clear).

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23939960-the-african-leaders-nairobi-declaration-on-climate-change-and-call-to-action