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G20 leaders must make recovery packages low carbon, say GCN members

31 March 2009

The directors of two of the founding member organisations of the Global Climate Network have called on G20 leaders to green their economic stimulus packages. In separate submissions to 20 on the G20, a pamphlet published 1 April 2009 by ippr, John Podesta of the Center for American Progress and Jiahua Pan of Beijing's Research Centre for Sustainable Development have each urged leaders meeting in London not to forget the urgent fight against climate change.

John Podesta, who led President Obama's transition team before returning to CAP, said:
"The London Summit is an historic opportunity for developed and developing countries to begin to make a fundamental shift in the way they produce and use energy.

"Countries around the world are making more than US$2 trillion in new investments in an effort to recover from the global recession, and this spending must move us all towards a low-carbon future. The chance to align public expenditures of this magnitude will simply not present itself again for decades."

Meanwhile Professor Pan calls for fairness to be at the heart of the global response:
"Action has to be taken, very urgently and at a large scale.

"Willingness and efforts to reduce emissions are highly dependent upon the rich in both the rich and poor countries to decouple carbon emission from growth and wellbeing. Technology is important and financing can help, but ultimately it is richest section of consumers who drive the demand for all the emissions and who can take actions."

Professor Pan ends his submission to the pamphlet by calling on the G20 to take seriously the need for low-carbon, high quality lifestyles in the future: "It is imperative that G20 leaders take this to the heart of their policymaking and lead the way with low carbon recovery initiatives."

Podesta supports this call, saying: "The world’s poorest countries have a right to development in a carbon-constrained world, and, as the primary contributors to global warming pollution, the wealthiest nations have a responsibility to assist in this development."