Diplomats: US blocking mention of climate change in G20 draft communique

G20 diplomats claim that the U.S. is opposed to the mention of climate change among global financial leaders after a joint statement revealed the G20 could include the U.S. administration’s position on the issue as a risk factor for economic growth.

Some G20 ministers said the U.S. was reluctant to accept language on climate change as a real danger to the economy, according to Reuters.

“Usually China blocks as well, but as they are represented at [the] lower level,” a G20 diplomat said, according to the news outlet. “It’s mainly the U.S.,”

The global forum for governments and central bank governors from the world’s 20 largest economies (G20) are discussing over the weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia the economic challenges these nations face, such as the outlook on growth and the establishment of new rules to tax digital companies across the world, the report said.

The G20 predicts a moderate pick-up in global growth this year and next, but considered risks to this outlook, including the remaining trade pressures, policy ambiguity and macroeconomic uncertainty related to environmental sustainability and climate change, according to the report.

“Climate is the last sticking point in the communique,” another source familiar with the discussions said. “There is still no agreement.”

President Trump in November began the yearlong process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, making the U.S. the only country in the world excluded from the global climate change agreement.