International climate negotiations should focus on money, not targets

The G20 should implement its 2009 pledge to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and give the money instead to the Green Climate Fund.

• International climate negotiations should focus on money – what should be paid for and who should pay – rather than targets. The G20 is a better forum for discussion of finance than is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The G20 should implement its 2009 pledge to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
• Much of the revenue which governments currently spend on fossil fuel subsidies should be given instead to the Green Climate Fund. This would help developing and emerging economies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the now-unavoidable impacts of a changing climate.