G20: A big green disappointment

To postpone further debate on climate change until Copenhagen would be a major missed opportunity

Dan Roberts
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 April 2009 15.20 BST

The big disappointment of the G20 so far is that green issues have been acknowledged, but not embraced. Something will be in the communiqué, but it will mainly be a commitment to hold more talks in Copenhagen.
Ed Miliband put on a brave face this afternoon arguing there had been huge progress convincing world leaders that tackling climate change was not in conflict with rescuing the economy. This is much is true. Even a few months ago, there was a real fear that the worsening financial crisis would force politicians to chose between saving jobs or saving the planet.
President Obama's election is probably the single biggest reason why this attitude has changed. By talking about specific green stimulus measures such as making aid to the car industry conditional on fuel efficiency gains, he has reminded the world that industrial innovation is one of the most powerful forces for environmental change.
But postponing further discussion on cutting carbon emissions until Copenhagen is a major missed opportunity. Given how much spending is being talked about at the G20 (whether new money for the IMF or existing national fiscal stimulus) this was the ideal moment to link the two issues more explicitly. Sadly, the difficulty of reaching agreement on other thorny issues such as regulation has kicked climate change into the long grass at just the wrong moment.