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China has obstructed negotiations leading up to the G20 climate ministers’ meeting today, observers said, backed by Saudi Arabia in putting in jeopardy an agreement on an end to fossil fuel use and a boost to renewable energy.
Several people familiar with the talks said China had refused to debate the main issues on the table, including a pledge to cut methane emissions and reduce the use of oil, gas and coal.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions although its emissions are lower than the EU and US on both a per-capita basis and historically. It has embarked on its renewables energy rollout rapidly but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels for energy.
One person at the negotiations in Chennai, India, which is the G20 host country this year, said: “I’ve never seen such wrecking tactics employed at a multilateral meeting before.”
“The Chinese negotiator has been a one-man wrecking ball in these negotiations,” said another person familiar with the talks.
Another participant described China’s response in negotiations as “stunning”, adding that its representatives, backed by Saudi Arabia, were being “increasingly obstructive”.
“It is becoming quite clear who is willing to move forward and find solutions and who isn’t. But if those countries aren’t willing to shift, then the world has a real problem,” the person said.
The fraught negotiations reflect the difficulties expected to be encountered at the UN COP28 climate summit in the UAE later this year.
The G20 group is responsible for about 80 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, making collective agreement key to addressing climate change.
In a joint statement on the sidelines of the G20 meetings on Thursday, UN climate chief Simon Stiell and COP28 president-designate Sultan al-Jaber, said G20 ministers “must leave Chennai on the right path and with a clear signal that the political will to tackle the climate crisis is there”.
Speaking from Chennai, Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s environment and climate change minister, said countries had come to the meeting with different views, adding that climate talks are “always challenging”.
He said progress had been made on issues such as biodiversity and water, and the political leaders would push for further agreement at their meeting on Friday.
Canada is one of the G7 countries to agree this year to accelerate a phase-out of fossil fuels and the shift towards renewable energy.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions.
The complaints come as China and the US, the world’s two biggest polluters, resume bilateral negotiations following a year of little progress amid broader tensions. The countries’ respective climate envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua met in Beijing last week and spoke again online on Thursday.
One climate expert familiar with China’s climate policy team said President Xi Jinping’s administration might be prioritising the discussions with the US over the G20. Beijing’s decision to dispatch Guo Xiaofeng to Chennai, a diplomat with a reputation for obstructionism, signalled China’s resistance to the G20 process this week.
Climate diplomats say China’s co-operation at UN COP28 will be critical to reaching agreement over several thorny issues, including the so-called global stocktake of emissions and negotiations over a fund for loss and damage resulting from climate change.
China has committed to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and to be “carbon-neutral” by 2060.
But Xi has said that the “method, pace and intensity to achieve this goal should and must be determined by ourselves, and will never be influenced by others”.
At the same time, China has been targeted by the US and EU in their efforts to reduce their reliance on Chinese imports for solar panels and other green technology.
The G20 climate policy deadlock follows a similar failure to reach agreement at the equivalent energy ministers’ meeting last week, where Russia also had a role in stymying any outcome related to climate change.
Geopolitical tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine have played a large part in the G20 ministerial discussions.
People involved in the latest G20 meetings said discussions with China had been difficult during previous international climate talks, including at the UN meeting in Bonn in June, but its stance at the Chennai negotiations had hardened.
Additional reporting by Benjamin Parkin in Delhi
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