The highly anticipated G20 summit in New Delhi finds itself embroiled in discord as the final Sherpa meeting, aimed at fine-tuning the ‘Delhi Declaration’, culminated without consensus.
With the world intently watching, two main points of contention arose: the ongoing war in Ukraine and the multifaceted intricacies surrounding climate change policy. It is now up to the leaders to iron out these differences and reach a consensus. India’s proposal on the paragraph addressing the Ukraine conflict has seemingly fallen short of finding middle ground, grappling to satisfy the demands of both the Western nations and the Russo-Chinese faction.
The situation compounds as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met in Jakarta in an attempt to untangle the deadlock, a task proving to be Herculean given the geopolitical complexity involved.
As India endeavours to steer away from the unenviable record of being the first presiding country unable to issue a leaders’ declaration, the fault lines appear to deepen. The Western nations are pushing for a candid condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, a narrative staunchly opposed by both China and Russia, given the economic tenets that underpin the G20’s ethos.
Parallel to the Ukrainian issue, climate change policy has surfaced as a major roadblock. The Sherpa discussions disclosed an embedded disagreement on key climate strategies encompassing fossil fuel utilization, renewable energy benchmarks, and greenhouse gas emission targets.
India finds itself among the nations — including Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia — opposing the Western proposition of exponentially increasing renewable energy capacity by 2030 coupled with a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
Saudi Arabia is particularly concerned because it is a fossil fuel- dependent economy. While it is attempting to shift to renewables and expand to other knowledge-based sectors, the shift could take a decade. There seems to be a pulsating urgency from G7 nations to escalate to net-zero commitments swiftly, a perspective counteracted by developing nations keen on safeguarding their energy requisites and economic trajectories.
India has been talking about the ‘first movers advantage’ that the developed world has had over the developing nations and therefore the Global South should get adequate time and funds to be able to develop whilst tackling the menace of climate change.
Globally, wealthy nations missed their pledge to provide, by 2020, $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer nations, which has put a question mark on the intent of the “historical” polluters in helping vulnerable countries who have had little to do with global warming.
