G20 environment ministers in Bali spur global climate action

Indonesia's environment minister says the world is already facing a climate crisis

Environment officials from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations met on August 31 on Indonesia's resort island of Bali for talks on climate action and the global impact of the war in Ukraine, with Indonesia's environment minister saying the world is already facing a climate crisis.

They discussed the implementation of each G20 nation's contribution to fighting climate change and synchronising targets among developing and developed countries, Indonesian environment minister Siti Nurbaya said after the meeting.

She said it produced a joint agreement with three priority issues — a sustainable economic recovery, land-based and ocean-based climate action, and resource mobilisation to accelerate environmental protection — to help realise the Paris agreement on climate change.

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“We are actually in a climate crisis position, no longer just climate change,” Ms. Nurbaya said. “We must work even faster to bring the global temperatures down as low as possible.”

She opened the meeting by urging fellow environment ministers to make the Paris agreement work, as the only way to effectively coordinate efforts to tackle global challenges.

“Environmental multilateralism is the only mechanism where all countries, regardless of their size and wealth, stand on equal footing and equal treatment,” Ms. Nurbaya said. “The voices of all countries, North and South, developed and developing, must be heard.”