Is exclusion of major polluters US and China from UN Climate Ambition Summit a wake-up call?

The exclusion of the world’s biggest emitters China and the United States from speaking at a summit on climate ambition is a wake-up call that will spur countries to scrutinise their actions, said observers.

On Wednesday (Sep 20), United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the Climate Ambition Summit that the climate crisis had “opened the gates to hell”. 

Mr Guterres had billed the summit on Wednesday as a “no-nonsense” forum, noting that only leaders with concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions would be invited. 

After receiving more than 100 applications to take part in the summit, the UN released a list of 41 speakers which did not include China, the US, the United Kingdom, Japan or India.

"NO-NONSENSE" FORUM

Shaming sometimes works, said Professor Mark Howden, director of the Australian National University’s Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions. 

“On the international sphere, when that occurs, there can be economic ramifications,” he told CNA938. “So people tend not to trade as easily with countries which are actually under a bit of a cloud.”

The UN’s move sets “clear benchmarks on what countries have to show and to prove in order to be given the spotlight” at the summit, said Mr David Ryfisch, head of division for international climate policy at Germanwatch, an independent organisation that lobbies for sustainable global development. 

Even though China is accelerating renewable energy generation, they are building more new coal plants that could affect its target to peak emissions before 2030, the climate policy expert told CNA’s Asia First. 

“The US, for the longest time historically, has been the biggest emitter and they have an obligation to support developing countries financially in the fight against climate change. And for a decade now, they have fallen short.” 

But Prof Howden does not think it is a good move to exclude the two countries in this case. 

“I think it's really important to have the two biggest emitters, the US and China, there,” he said, adding that the two countries also have huge investments in solving these issues, including directing spending towards promoting clean energy. 

“They are big players. And so in my view, they need to be part of the discussions, and increasingly that will be the case.”

Despite increasing extreme weather events and record-breaking global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and fossil fuels remain subsidised to the tune of US$7 trillion annually.

However, there is still hope, experts believe. 

“We can still limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees (Celsius),” said Mr Guterres, referring to the target seen as needed to avoid long-term climate catastrophe.

TACKLING A GLOBAL PROBLEM

Prof Howden, who has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation and adoption issues for more than 30 years, said those that made the list of speakers at the UN Climate Ambition Summit were carefully selected. 

Prominent nations addressing the summit include Austria, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Pakistan and South Africa. 

These are countries “which had been more ambitious in terms of their emission reductions”, said Prof Howden. 

“They've got updated targets for net zero. They've got strong transition plans to move away from fossil fuels to renewables, but in very sensible ways that don't cause social disruption, and also not opening up new coal, gas and oil activities.”

Unlike these countries, many others are still putting their own interests first before tackling the global problem of climate change, said observers. 

Despite renewable energy sources being economically beneficial, some countries and businesses are “trying to give a lifeline to fossil fuels and thus preventing unity against the climate crisis”, said Mr Ryfisch.

He called for countries to work closer together to end fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy, adding that “climate change is affecting all levels of life”. 

“So the divide that we see, especially between China and the West, is harmful to climate action, when what we need to win against the climate crisis is collaboration,” he said.

Prof Howden noted: “Obviously, national leaders have a primacy in terms of dealing with their national issues and supporting their own country.

Citing the legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change, he said: “There’s an acceptance that we need to act (together) rather than just individual nations if we're to actually solve this problem, because it is a global problem.”