JAKARTA: Indonesia on Wednesday urged global cooperation on climate change as it warned of a tipping point into “uncharted territory.”
But a meeting of environment officials from the Group of 20 major economies concluded without a joint communique.
The G20 climate meetings, attended by senior officials from the group’s member and invited countries, took place amid extreme weather events happening in different parts of the world, such as fires, floods, and heatwaves.
G20 host Indonesia had invited representatives from the African Union to join the talks for the first time, as Jakarta sought to hear “voices of all countries,” regardless of their wealth and size.
Indonesian Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar called for countries to work together to tackle climate change in her opening remarks to the Bali gathering, attended by senior representatives of India, Japan, and South Korea, and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, among others.
Bakar said: “(Climate change) would not only wipe out all the development progress that has been achieved over the past decades, particularly in emerging economies, but it would also propel us over an environmental tipping point into uncharted territory where no future will be sustainable.
“There is no one single country that is not adversely affected in one way or another, and we cannot solve those global environmental problems alone.”
During a press conference at the end of the meeting, she described the day’s discussions as having been “challenging,” due to “multiple perspectives and implications of each member country’s interest.”
Though a joint communique was expected early on, the climate talks concluded with only a chair’s summary.
Tata Mustasya, regional climate and energy campaign strategist at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, told Arab News that Wednesday’s G20 outcome was “concerning.”
He said: “G20 countries are most responsible for the climate crisis because they control over 80 percent of the global economy and produce 80 percent of global emissions.
“The outcome of the G20 climate meeting shows a concerning signal, that G20 will repeat the failure of other international forums to formulate commitments and concrete joint steps to stop climate change on time.”
