Governments, business leaders and development banks have two years to act to prevent much worse climate change, warned today the UN climate chief, in a speech in which he declared that global warming is not high on the politicians’ agenda.

Scientists say halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is critical to halting a further rise in temperatures by 1.5 degrees Celsius which will trigger more extreme weather and heat.

G20, divided on geopolitical issues, cannot ‘relegate second place’ to climate deregulation which will “decimate” its economies, the UN climate chief warned today, advocating a “new (economic) deal” to help developing countries fight warming.

“Blaming others is not a strategy” and “relegating climate to second place is not the answer to a deregulation that will decimate every single G20 economy and which has already started to cause damage,” Simon Steele said in speech he delivered in London.

On March 1st, The finance ministers of the G20 countries ended their meeting in Sao Paulo without an agreement on the joint statement due to the “impasse” linked to disputes over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

And unlocking the billions of dollars needed for the energy transition and adaptation to extreme weather in developing economies is central to international climate negotiations in 2024, ahead of COP29 in November in Baku, and the focus of the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in mid-April.

“The economic firepower that the G20 mobilized during the global financial crisis (in 2008) must be re-engaged and resolutely geared towards reducing galloping emissions” and adaptation “immediately,” its executive secretary added. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (CCNUCC).

The leadership of the G20, the Group of 20 largest economies on the planet, which accounts for 80% of humanity’s emissions, “must be at the center of the solution, as they were during the great financial crisis,” Steele added, addressing the forum. of rich countries and large emerging economies, including China, India and Brazil.

Countries around the world must step up their targets for reducing greenhouse gases, which are currently far insufficient to limit warming to the 1.5°C predictedi the Paris Agreementrecalled the high-ranking UN official.

Simon Steele also underlined the “absolutely crucial role” of the G7 countries “as key stakeholders in the World Bank and the IMF”.

Although all countries of the world need to revise their emission reduction plans until COP30in 2025, the release of financial aid is a “prerequisite” in the efforts on this issue of developing countries “without which all economies, including the G7 countries, will soon be hit by serious and permanent problems”, underlined the head of the UN on Climate.

His warning comes at a time when inflation and the constraints of the ecological transition threaten, two months before the European elections, the climate ambitions of rich countries and, indirectly, international economic solidarity.