US Pressures G20 Into Dropping Climate Reference from Joint Statement

Finance ministers for the Group of 20 (G20), which comprises the world’s biggest economies, dropped a joint statement mentioning funding for the fight against climate change after pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

A G20 official taking part in the annual meeting told Reuters that efforts by this year’s German leadership to keep climate funding in the statement had hit a wall.

“Climate change is out for the time being,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin stressed that the move did not mark the end of the road for the statement. The G20 is scheduled to meet in full in July in Hamburg.

“There can be a way to overcome disagreements today—that is, not writing about it in the communique,” Sapin told reporters on Friday. “But not writing about it doesn’t mean not talking about it. Not writing about it means that there are difficulties, that there is a disagreement and that we we must work on them in the coming months.”

The statement does mention the need to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but overall the language appears weaker than previous communiques, critics said.