Looking to the G20 for climate leadership

In a special editorial released before the G20 Summit in Australia, Tony de Brum (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Marshall Islands) and Pa Ousman Jarju (Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources, Parks & Wildlife of the Gambia) urge G20 nations to provide climate leadership. They argue that the G20's economic influence is essential to transition to a low-carbon economy and prevent global economic and security risks.

• The G20 nations are identified as the primary drivers of climate change and the entities best positioned to address it, as they represent the world's twenty largest economies and are responsible for 80 per cent of global carbon emissions.
• The authors argue that long-term economic prosperity is impossible without policy measures to limit emissions, deploy green technology, and shift investments toward a carbon-neutral world by 2050. They cite Henry Paulson, former US Treasury Secretary, who described climate change as "the single biggest risk to the global economy."
• The document highlights the high economic cost of inaction compared to the cost of prevention, citing that the IPCC warned of a potential loss of over two percent of the world's economy by 2050. Specific examples include pollution in China causing up to a 13 per cent GDP loss and the $50 billion clean-up cost of Hurricane Sandy in New York, which could have been mitigated by a $20 billion investment in climate-proofed infrastructure.
• The authors call for all G20 members to adhere to the timeline for proposing emission reduction commitments by March 2015, as agreed in Warsaw. While the Marshall Islands and the Gambia are working toward this deadline, they note their own emissions are negligible and that leadership from major emitters like China, the US, and the EU is critical.

APA

de Brum, T., & Jarju, P. O. (n.d.). Looking to the G20 for climate leadership. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/story/opinion-looking-g20-climate-leadership

Chicago

de Brum, Tony, and Pa Ousman Jarju. Looking to the G20 for climate leadership. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. https://cdkn.org/story/opinion-looking-g20-climate-leadership.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=de Brum |first1=Tony |last2=Jarju |first2=Pa Ousman |title=Looking to the G20 for climate leadership |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=https://cdkn.org/story/opinion-looking-g20-climate-leadership |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{debrumndlooking, author = {de Brum, Tony and Jarju, Pa Ousman}, title = {{Looking to the G20 for climate leadership}}, publisher = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {https://cdkn.org/story/opinion-looking-g20-climate-leadership}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }