Environmental campaigners, top insurance companies and green finance promoters found little to praise in the 48-point Leaders' Communiqué issued by the G20 summit of heads of state/government and central bankers ending Monday in Huangzhou, China -  though many business and industrial sectors were more upbeat.

Accounting for 66 per cent of world population, 85 per cent of gross world product, 80 per cent of world trade and 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, G20 group members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UK, USA and the EU. Several sectoral ministerial meetings and parallel stakeholder fora (business, labour, civil society etc) are held between the annual summits.

While Climate Action Network International, linking 950 environmental NGOs in 100 countries (Nature Trust Malta is a member)  hailed last Saturday's ratification by US and China of the Paris Agreement on climate change adopted by 196 nations at the UN climate conference last December  -   with Presidents Obama and Xi handing over the related documents to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon at a much reported photo.op. - it slammed the final communiqué as being "low on details, weak in tone and failing to make strong commitments on fighting climate change."

USA and China together account for 38 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the pact  only enters into force with 55 ratifications by nations totalling 55 per cent of global emissions. The new ratifications boost the tally to just 26 nations and 39.06 per cent. Brazil, Argentina and France have already ratified, but none of the remaining non-ratifying fifteen G20 members made any announcement about their timelines, while India (4 per cent) said it would not join this year.

EU accounts for 10 per cent but its ratification is still up in the air. A forthcoming Council must decide whether it authorises ratification on behalf of the Union to be deposited at the UN before all 28 member states have ratified in their own parliaments (only France and Hungary have so far). As for Malta's ratification, emailed requests for a firm date by this reporter sent to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Malta's climate change focal point and its Ambassador for Climate Change had failed to generate replies at time of going to press.

Although the Agreement governs post-2020 actions to keep global warming to well below 2C above the pre-industrial level and to 'pursue efforts' to achieve a maximum of +1.5C the race is still on for entry into force this year -  not only to give a strong long-term signal to investors and industries but before the new US president takes office on 20 January. This is in case Donald Trump, who has sworn to 'cancel' US participation, is elected.   However, if the Agreement is already in force, a US withdrawal would take four years to complete, though of course the new administration could meanwhile ignore its provisions.

Pope Francis in his 1 September message for the start of the Season of Creation observed by all main Christian churches stated that "now governments are obliged to honour the commitments they made (in Paris), while businesses must also responsibly do their part. It is up to citizens to insist that this happen, and indeed to advocate for even more ambitious goals."

A letter to G20 from mayors of thirty world megacities urged that "to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2020. Achieving such a rapid shift is probably one of the greatest political, economic and practical challenges faced by every national leader, but you do have great allies in this task: we, the mayors of the megacities of the world."

Climate Transparency's report "Brown to Green: Assessing the G20's transition to a low carbon economy" issued on 1 September warned that G20 member states' pledged climate action "is still far from where it needs to be to meet the Paris Agreement's temperature goals... the G20 needs to reduce emissions by six times what has been pledged so far by 2030.... the large number of planned new coal-fired power plants that would almost double the G20's coal capacity would make it virtually impossible to keep warming even to 2˚C, let alone "well below 2˚C" or down to 1.5˚C . ..there is not yet the necessary dynamic to transform the 'brown' fossil-fuel based economy and into the 'green.'"

Leading global insurance companies Aviva, Aegon and Amlin managing $1.2 trillion assets, supported by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and Open Energi demanded last week that by 2020 G20 phase out fossil fuel subsidies (estimated at some $500 billion a year) "that encourage wasteful consumption...given the urgency of the climate change crisis". In May G7 nations pledged to achieve this by 2025. Factoring in fossil fuel emissions' damage to the environment and health the International Monetary Fund estimate their costs to governments at an annual $5.3 trillion.

However, G20 communique only agreed to phase them out in 'the medium term' inviting members to conduct voluntary 'peer reviews'.

Writing to G20 leaders two weeks ago, 130 institutional investors grouped in six coalitions managing $13 trillion assets also called for entry into force by the year's end, fossil fuel subsidy phase out, a doubling of renewable energy investment by 2020, and institution of mandatory carbon disclosure in company reporting. The communiqué language fell rather short of these, though it did "recognise the need to scale up green financing, welcoming the G20 Green Finance Synthesis Report submitted by the Green Finance Study Group" (set up by the China presidency). The communiqué then listed "efforts" that "could be made".

Industrial and business circles however found much to support in the "Hangzhou Consensus  - based on "vision, integration, openness and inclusiveness" with its standard language about growth, employment, rolling back protection, promoting enterprise and so on.

Between now and the next July's summit in Hamburg hosted by Chancellor Merkel, G20 civil servants and ministers will have their work cut out to implement the many actions and  slew of new initiatives in the Consensus. The latter include the Blueprint on Innovative Growth, the 2016 Innovation Action Plan, the New Industrial Revolution Action Plan, the Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative, the Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative, the High-level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion, the Enhanced Structural Reform Agenda,  the Agenda Towards A More Stable and Resilient International Financial Architecture, the 2017-2018 G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan, the Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Voluntary Collaboration Action Plan on Energy Access, the  Voluntary Action Plan on Renewable Energy, the Energy Efficiency Leading Programme, the Strategy for Global Trade Growth, and the Global Platform on Inclusive Business.

(G20 communique posted at www/English.g20.org)