Earth Times
6/27/2010
Toronto – The leaders of the world’s 20 most powerful developed and developing states (G20) on Sunday dropped a pledge to invest in climate-friendly energy generation from their final summit statement.
Climate change topped the world agenda last year, but was eclipsed after the relative failure of a massive summit in Copenhagen in December. The G20’s decision further tones down international pledges to invest in the fight against global warming.
Earlier drafts of the statement for the summit, which brought together the leaders of key states such as China, India and the United States, said that G20 members “reiterate our commitment to … investments in clean energy.”
But that phrase was left out of the final version, which instead reiterated leaders’ “commitment to a green recovery and to sustainable global growth.”
G20 members are deeply at odds over the climate question. The European Union and Japan have already pledged to make deep greenhouse-gas emissions cuts, but other developed and developing states are at odds over the question of who should do how much.
“The issue shows that the G20 can’t do everything,” one diplomat commented drily.
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