The high-level diplomatic push for climate action shifted southward on Tuesday as G20 leaders met in Rio, backing the scaling up of climate finance.

The leaders sent a clear signal to negotiating teams at stalled UN climate talks in Baku on the need to rapidly and substantially “scale up climate finance from billions to trillions from all sources.”

While the statement from the world’s leading economies – and biggest emitters – stopped short of explicit reference to “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, to which all nations agreed last year at COP28 in Dubai, the G20 leaders did “welcome the balanced, ambitious outcome” of those talks.

The G20 communiqué comes as the clock ticks down on COP29, which is set to wrap up this Friday in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku.

The complex negotiations on new and significantly scaled-up funding for loss and damage and accelerated clean energy goals are moving slowly as some countries dig into their positions while waiting for others to pull back from their own.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell, who earlier warned against brinkmanship and what he called “you-first-ism”, said G20 leaders sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: “A successful new finance goal… is in every country’s clear interests.”

(NAN)