G8/G20 Summits Policy Brief
Canada, June 2010
For questions or feedback
please contact:
Ilana Solomon
Policy Analyst
ActionAid USA
Ilana.Solomon@ActionAid.org
202-835-1240 x217
John Ruthrauff
Senior Manager of
Member Advocacy
InterAction
jruthrauff@interaction.org
202-552-6523
Contributors
• Action Against Hunger USA
• ActionAid USA
• Africa Media Action
• American Red Cross
• Center for Biological Diversity
• CARE
• Church World Service
• EcoEquity
• Friends of the Earth US
• InterAction
• Islamic Relief USA
• Lutheran World Relief
• Oil Change International
• Oxfam America
• Population Action International
• Sustainable Energy & Economy
Network
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• US Climate Action Network
• World Wildlife Fund
www.InterAction.org
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202-667-8227
March 2010
Climate Change
I
n 2005, in Gleneagles, Scotland, G8 nations committed to “act with resolve and urgency”
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders also committed to “work with developing
countries on building capacity to help them improve their resilience and integrate adapta-
tion goals into sustainable development strategies.” 1 Five years later, climate change is dan-
gerously near irreversible tipping points, and the intensifying impacts of climate change are
threatening the lives of vulnerable people across the globe. Meaningful action by G8 and G20
leaders has never been more urgent.
Recommendations
InterAction’s G8/G20 NGO Coordination Group urges the U.S. government to take a strong
leadership role at the June 2010 G8 Muskoka Summit and G20 Toronto Summit. We
request that the following recommendations be included in the respective communiqués.
1. G20 countries must raise the level of ambition on their mitigation targets to ensure that
the increase in global temperatures stay as far below 2° Celsius as possible.
2. The G20 countries must commit to innovative mechanisms to generate substantial
new and additional public funding to support developing countries to adapt to the
impacts of climate change, transition to clean energy economies and reduce emissions
from deforestation and degradation. The vast majority of this funding must be directed
through a funding mechanism under the authority of the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change Conference of Parties (UNFCCC - COP).
3. The G20 countries need to advance global plans for expanding the diffusion and
deployment of clean energy technologies.
Background
The impacts of climate change—more frequent and severe floods, droughts, cyclones and
shifting seasons and rainfall patterns—threaten food security, livelihoods, and the very right
to survival for millions of the world’s poorest people. Human-caused climate change is real,
currently happening, and dangerously near irreversible tipping points.
The recent negotiations in Copenhagen presented an opportunity for a comprehensive
and equitable global commitment to address climate change. Yet within the Copenhagen
Accord—the political statement finalized at the end of the negotiations—there is no assur-
ance that global temperatures will not reach dangerous levels. There is also no legal commit-
ment to dedicate resources at the scale needed to help developing countries adapt to the
impacts of climate change and transition to clean energy economies.
It is imperative that G20 countries reiterate that the UNFCCC is the only appropriate forum
with the necessary legitimacy and global character to reach a comprehensive and equita-
ble agreement at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP) that protects the rights and ensures
the survival of communities and growing populations living in extreme poverty. While the
G20 must not become a space for international climate negotiations, G20 countries can help
advance a fair and science-based UNFCCC agreement by committing to the following:
 1. G20 countries must raise the level of ambition on
their mitigation targets to ensure that the increase in
global temperatures stay as far below 2° Celsius as pos-
sible
While the Copenhagen Accord recognizes the need to
keep the Earth’s temperature from warming no more than
2°C/3.6°F above pre-industrial levels, it lacks a system for
determining whether countries’ individual pledges would
meet this goal. A number of analyses, including one by the
UNFCCC secretariat, have concluded that under scenarios
consistent with the emissions reductions pledged thus far,
global average temperatures would rise at least 3°C. More-
over, while the IPCC has advised that a 2°C rise represents
the threshold beyond which irreversible damage will likely
occur, many countries-- based on the severity of impacts at
current levels of warming --are calling for no more than a
1.5°C temperature rise to avoid catastrophe.
In order to ensure that the Earth’s temperature does not
rise beyond 2° C above pre-industrial levels, global emis-
sions must peak between 2015 – 2017 and decline by at
least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. This must be achieved
in a way that fully reflects the historic and current contri-
butions of developed countries to climate change and the
right of developing countries to sustainable development.
While all countries must raise the level of ambition on
their mitigation targets, developed countries must commit
and be held accountable to binding emissions reduction
targets starting in 2013. Developing countries should also
raise their level of ambition contingent on commensurate
finance and technology support from developed countries.
Finally, in order to achieve such global emissions reduc-
tions, all G20 countries should produce long-term mitiga-
tion strategies.The development of developing country mit-
igation strategies must be financed by developed countries.
2. The G20 countries must commit to innovative
mechanisms to generate substantial new and addi-
tional public funding to support developing coun-
tries to adapt to the impacts of climate change, transi-
tion to clean energy economies, and reduce emissions
from deforestation and degradation. The vast major-
ity of this funding must be directed through a funding
mechanism(s) under the authority of the Conference of
Parties.
In Copenhagen countries agreed to jointly mobilize $100
billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the adaptation and
mitigation needs of developing countries. It is essential
that developed countries within the G20 realize this com-
mitment with public finance. Public investments in pre-
paredness and adaptation are essential to ameliorate the
casualties and costs associated with climate impacts. Pub-
lic finance for climate change also serves the US interest in
addressing climate change and will provide resources to
2
create the enabling conditions for private sector investment
in developing country markets. For example, public sector
finance can provide the incentives that are required for stra-
tegic investments that will have long-term returns, such as
innovative clean energy and adaptation technologies that
may be considered too risky for private investors.
In order to raise the needed resources and meet our com-
mitments, the G20 must agree to a combination of innova-
tive mechanisms to raise public finance. At the G20 meeting
in Pittsburgh in September 2009, G20 countries agreed to
“phase out and rationalize over the medium term inefficient
fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support for
the poorest.” 2 G20 leaders should now ensure that all fos-
sil fuel subsidies not narrowly targeted to promote energy
access for the poorest are phased out as soon as possible
and redirected to international climate finance. This phasing
out must begin with production subsidies in the developed
countries which should be eliminated by 2011.
Other promising innovative sources of climate finance
that curb greenhouse gas emissions and economic instabil-
ity include a financial transaction tax that could raise bil-
lions of dollars for climate change and may curb speculative
finance, international aviation and shipping mechanisms,
and new allocations of the International Monetary Fund’s
Special Drawing Rights.3
While generating new funding for climate change is
essential, so too is channeling climate finance through the
appropriate mechanism. The G20 countries should work
within the UNFCCC to operationalize a green climate fund.
Such a fund should operate under the authority of the
UNFCCC4 and must ensure the meaningful engagement of
civil society and vulnerable populations in at-risk countries
in all stages of development and implementation (includ-
ing women, ethnic minorities, and pastoralists). The fund
should transfer resources directly to recipient countries and
ensure the protection of rights, including those enshrined
in UN declarations on universal human rights, indigenous
rights, and territorial rights and customary use.
3. The G20 countries need to advance global plans
for expanding the diffusion and deployment of clean
energy technologies.
The G20 must advance the global scale-up of clean tech-
nologies and complement progress in the UNFCCC process.
Adaptation technologies should also be given prominence
in these forums alongside consideration of mitigation
options.
Many of the G20 countries were involved in designing
the Major Economies Forum (MEF) technology roadmaps,
which were released in December 2009. This year, the G20
should outline a clear plan for sharing those roadmaps
with a broader group of countries in the UN, incorporating
stakeholder input, and integrating those roadmaps into
the UNFCCC process. Technology roadmaps should then be
implemented immediately. We recommend that the MEF
focus on capacity building and scaling up of ready-to-go
technologies such as efficiency, wind, solar, and efficient
transportation.
Additionally, the G20 should advance last year’s commit-
ment made at the Major Economies Forum to double pub-
lic sector investments in research, development, and dem-
onstration of low-carbon climate-friendly technologies by
2015.5 An agreement on the mechanism for cooperation
on technology is needed this year in order to ensure that
all countries have access to clean energy and are pursuing
decarbonization.

Multiple organizations contributed to one or more of the recommendations in

this policy statement. The statement is not designed to be a consensus position
and has not been explicitly endorsed by the contributing organizations, the
InterAction Board, or its 193 member organizations.

Additional Policy Briefs are available on the InterAction web site:

www.InterAction.org/canada-2010-g8g20-summit.
• Accountability
• Basic Education
• Global Economic Crisis
• Global Health
• Global Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation
• Food, Hunger and Agriculture

Endnotes

1 “Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development.”

G8 Gleneagles Summit. July 2005. http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/
summit/2005gleneagles/climatechange.pdf

2 “Leaders’ Statement: The Pittsburgh Summit.” September 2009. http://

www.pittsbur ghsummit.gov/mediacenter/129639.htm

3 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) are “reserve assets” issued by the IMF and
allocated to IMF member countries. SDRs can be used to build up a coun-
try’s reserves or can be converted to hard currency.

4 The UNFCCC should have the authority to determine the composition

and members of the executive board of the fund and the authority to
set the policies, program priorities and eligibility criteria for funding and
revise those as needed.

5 “Declaration of the Leaders, the Major Economies Forum on Energy and

Climate.” July 2009. http://www.g8italia2009.it/static/G8_Allegato/MEF_
Declarationl.pdf