G20 heavyweights drop pledges previously made in favor of climate profiteers

• 6/27, Earth Times, 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. ...

• 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 issue shows that the G20 can't do everything," one diplomat commented drily. Summit host Canada, in particular, has fought against approving overly ambitious language on clean energy. ...

• Environment group WWF reacted angrily to the omission. "They went through this document with a vacuum cleaner to remove any reference to clean energy. In the Pittsburgh G20 summit (in September 2009), there were 8 references to 'clean energy' -
• in this one, there is zero," WWF climate expert Kim Carstensen said. "...

The text also watered down a Pittsburgh pledge to phase out subsidies of fossil fuels. The final version said that that pledge should only apply to "inefficient" subsidies "that encourage wasteful consumption.""...

• "G20 summit drops clean energy pledge," Earth Times, via Tom Nelson

photo CaptainsQuarters

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