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CARE G20 and Climate Change Report

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CARE G20 and Climate Change Report CARE Climate Change and climate change time to lead for a safer future CONTENTS SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS 3 CLIMATE CHANGE DISRUPTS DEVELOPMENT 4 G20 AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS 5 CLIMATE CHANGE DISRUPTS DEVELOPMENT 6 1.5ºC: THE RECORD WE MUST NOT BREAK 7 G20 COUNTRIES: MAJOR HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTORS TO HARMFUL EMISSIONS 8 PROMOTE RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR CLIMATE & PEOPLE 9 EXTREME WEATHER HITS G20 AND CAUSES LOSSES 10 G20 PREPARE FOR IMPACTS, BUT OTHER COUNTRIES ARE MORE VULNERABLE 11 G20 FAIL TO STOP SUBSIDISING HARMFUL FOSSIL FUELS 12 CLIMATE CHANGE AND GENDER EQUALITY: MORE WORK AHEAD 13 DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN G20 MUST INCREASE ADAPTATION FINANCE 14 RECOMMENDATIONS 15 REFERENCES 16 2 SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS Four Key Actions PROTECT THE POOR FROM CLIMATE RISKS The G20 countries should commit to increasing the protection of the poor and vulnerable, in particular women and girls, against climate risks through Four Key Facts proactive adaptation, pro-poor insurance approaches, and investing into social protection systems in vulnerable developing countries. Developed countries in G20 FEEL CLIMATE IMPACTS & ADAPT the G20 need to ramp up adaptation and loss and damage finance to poor Climate impacts have already hit G20 countries, and analyses show they are countries and cooperation with V20 countries and Africa needs to be intensified. not equally vulnerable nor prepared, but have started to adapt. However, many poorer countries are more vulnerable with less capacity. PROMOTE RADICAL EMISSION REDUCTIONS TOWARDS 1.5°C LIMIT CLIMATE CHANGE DISRUPTS DEVELOPMENT All G20 governments should provide Nationally Determined Contributions One of the greatest inequalities in the world is reflected in the causes and (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement with high ambition levels that are consistent consequences of climate change. People living in poverty, in particular women with the 1.5°C limit, backed up by mid-century strategies to be delivered by and girls, who are the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, bear all G20 by 2018. This should be complemented by concrete action initiatives the brunt of climate impacts. Without urgent action to limit warming to 1.5°C which deliver additional emission reductions before 2020, in particular by and to scale-up adaptation efforts immediately, it could become impossible accelerating the shift to 100% renewable energy. for poor people to secure their livelihoods and to reach a wide range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY & HUMAN RIGHTS IN CLIMATE ACTION G20 CAN LEAD SHIFT TO 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY G20 countries should commit to fully promoting gender equality and human In many G20 countries a renewable energy revolution has started, with falling rights in all climate action. G20 countries should promise to regularly prices helping to tackle energy poverty. This has opened up more mitigation exchange experience and report on progress achieved in this regard (incl. in potential to bring the world on a 1.5°C and 100% renewable energy pathway, relation to the NDCs). They should also promise to support the adoption and but G20 still subsidise fossil fuels at unacceptable levels. implementation of a strong gender action plan under the UNFCCC. G20 ARE UNEQUALLY RESPONSIBLE PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES G20 countries are responsible for more than 99% of historic carbon emissions. & MAKE FINANCE SUSTAINABLE While China and the US are the biggest current total emitters, US and the EU G20 must agree on the equitable, pro-poor phase out of all fossil fuel subsidies and still remain the main polluters in a historic perspective since 1850, and India should redirect these to sustainable sources of renewable energy and energy efficiency and Indonesia have the lowest per capita emissions. From this responsibility by 2020. G20 must cooperate to make financial investments sustainable and advance comes an obligation to act and support others, but the G20 action pledges poverty-sensitive carbon pricing to invest into climate and SDG action. are not yet sufficient, while some are worse than others. 3 CLIMATE CHANGE DISRUPTS DEVELOPMENT CARE’s FIVE KEY DEMANDS FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE Lucy Beck/CARE © 1. Governments must take concrete steps to put the 1.5°C limit into practice People living in poverty, who are the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, bear the brunt of climate impacts. and shift to 100% pro-poor renewable CARE is already seeing how climate change is eroding and reversing development gains and exacerbating energies in an equitable manner. gender inequality and social and economic injustices across the world. Climate change is increasingly affecting everything that CARE does and poses a significant threat to our vision of a world of hope, tolerance and social 2. Governments must scale-up support for justice where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. Without urgent action, this could gender-equitable, pro-poor adaptation make it impossible for poor and marginalised people to reach a wide range of poverty eradication and sustainable to climate change impacts in developing development goals. CARE is already very active in helping communities adapt to the impacts of climate change and countries to build resilience. build resilience, and has produced a range of learning tools based upon its experiences, and engages in advocacy 3. Governments need to address the and communications. growing loss and damage from climate change impacts and scale-up finance for Globally, we have seen absolute record temperatures in 2015/2016 and the previous years. In 2016, every month was 1 loss and damage. hotter, globally, than previously, and saw the biggest jump in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Millions of people have been suffering across the globe from the impacts of climate change. For example, the El Niño-driven drought, 4. Countries must promote sustainable, made worse by climate change, is exacerbating food insecurity, a strong indication of the severe climate adaptation productive, equitable and resilient and disaster preparedness gap. Globally, the number of people who are displaced from their homes, many of them agriculture through domestic action and due to extreme weather events, is unprecedented. This situation is regarded as the biggest humanitarian crisis since international cooperation on sustainable the 2nd world war. agriculture and food and nutrition security. 5. Governments need to promote and respect gender equality and human rights “One of the greatest inequalities in the world is reflected in the causes in all climate action. and consequences of climate change which threatens the livelihoods of billions of people, especially women and girls.” Wolfgang Jamann, CEO and Secretary General of CARE International 4 G20 AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS The G20, created in 1999, is comprised of 19 countries - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States - and the European Union. As the world’s largest emitters, responsible for over 80% of current greenhouse gas emissions and representing 85% of global GDP and 51% of the population, it is the responsibility of the G20 to lead the reduction of emissions though a transition to renewables and adequate climate finance.2 Of course, within the group of countries the responsibilities vary, with different levels of cumulative historic and current emissions and different obligations under the UN Climate Change Convention. For example, current per capita emissions in the US and Canada are approximately 10 times higher than in India.3 As the Earth’s temperature continues to increase, it is vital that the G20 countries commit to the mission of addressing and adapting to climate change and play a pivotal role in meeting the commitments to the Paris Agreement to prevent the global temperature from rising above 1.5ºC. G20 countries have significant influence on the design and implementation of the global climate change regime. The German G20 Presidency decided to put sustainable energy and climate change on the 2017 agenda, along with further work on advancing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Vulnerable country groups, like the Climate Vulnerable Forum/V20, have urged G20 to take more ambitious actions. The aim of this report is to dive deeper into the G20’s role in confronting climate change from the perspective of the poorest and most vulnerable, with a differentiated analysis recognising the block’s diversity. It does so by analyzing various data sources, rankings and indices developed by other think tanks and scientific institutions in order to highlight which of the countries are performing well and which are not, as well as who needs to ramp up adaptive efforts based on risk and climate resilience. The report outlines the current G20 climate change picture and provides recommendations on key steps and agreements G20 countries need to take in 2017. 5 Andreas Habich (CC BY-SA 3.0) © 1.5ºC: THE RECORD WE MUST NOT BREAK The inclusion of the goal of pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5ºC above pre- DIFFERENCES industrial levels in the Paris Climate Change Agreement was a major achievement from IN PROJECTED the perspective of vulnerable countries and civil society. This must now be followed up 1.5ºC 2ºC with decisive, fast and ambitious action to reduce emissions. It is vital that countries IMPACTS strive to stay within the 1.5ºC limit, agreed
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