As the SA G20 unfolds, I wish to reiterate what was said during the first G20 environment and climate sustainability working group (ECSWG) meeting in March: we are less than five years away from our deadline to achieve the sustainable development goals and the end of this critical decade for climate action.
The second meeting of the ECSWG has crystallised six interlocking priorities — each a potential growth engine for the private sector. With fewer than five years to hit the sustainable development goals and cap this decisive decade for climate action, corporates must marshal capital, technology and expertise to turn ecological imperatives into resilient returns.
These priorities have been carefully chosen. They build on the successes and key outcomes of the previous G20 environment and climate sustainability working group presidencies, particularly those of Brazil, India and Indonesia, and are aligned to the objectives contained in the AU’s Agenda 2063, the Africa We Want, the blueprint for the continent’s sustainable development.
The priority area of biodiversity and conservation focuses on sharing experiences on the national biodiversity strategies and action plans and their role in effectively realising the aspirations and ambitions of the global biodiversity framework. Indeed, the G20 can play a crucial part in halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, aiming for a “nature-positive world” for the benefit of people and the planet.
Building on the Brazilian presidency’s initiative on bioeconomy, this priority area will also deal with the role of the bioeconomy, nature and wildlife economy in contributing to livelihoods of communities. Here, we recognise the critical role of traditional and indigenous communities in biodiversity stewardship and antipoaching, as a foundation for sustainable livelihoods.
We have also recognised the importance of addressing the issue of environmental crime within the G20. Indeed, in many countries endowed with large forests and rich biodiversity as well as other natural resources, the risks of illegal logging, illicit mining, poaching and wildlife trafficking are threatening the achievement of environmental, economic and social developmental imperatives. It is therefore important that as the G20, we send a strong and clear message in this regard.
The second priority area is land degradation, desertification and drought, including water sustainability. Achieving land degradation neutrality requires the following concurrent actions:
- Avoiding new degradation of land by maintaining existing healthy land.
- Reducing existing degradation by adopting sustainable land management and regenerative practices, focusing on integrated water resource management, while increasing biodiversity, soil health and food production.
- Scaling up efforts to restore and return degraded lands to a natural or more productive state.
Given the limited resources to address environmental problems in today’s global economy, there is a need for us as countries to pool our resources to address these challenges synergistically. Therefore, focusing on land degradation neutrality represents a major opportunity to contribute to sustainable development by scaling up good practices and pilot activities through large-scale transformative projects and programmes. These initiatives can generate multiple benefits, including positive changes in human wellbeing, poverty alleviation, and the restoration of terrestrial ecosystems and their services.
Importantly, we aim to navigate these complexities with respect of the rights of landholders, especially of marginalised, traditional and indigenous communities.
The third priority focuses on chemicals and waste management, which includes the subpriorities of sustainable chemicals management; the circular economy; waste management; waste to energy; and extended producer responsibility implementation. The G20 can notably support the development of a legally binding international treaty to combat plastic pollution, as agreed at the UN Environment Assembly in 2022.
This priority area recognises, among other things, the importance of promoting and increasing capacity for the circular economy as a regenerative system designed to minimise resource input, waste, emissions and energy loss by promoting activities such as design for longevity, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling.
Furthermore, the continued and growing global demand for, and supply and use of, pesticides and industrial chemicals, as well as mounting waste from rapid increase in critical minerals mining and processing, present a significant health and environmental risk if poorly managed. Opportunities to transition relevant sectors to safe and nonchemical alternatives exist; it is upon us as a collective to realise that we are faced with the challenge of increased pollution from chemicals. This is an issue that this working group is well-positioned to address.
The fourth priority area is on climate change, with a focus on the just transitions beyond the scope of the energy transition; adaptation and resilience, loss and damage, and now this priority also includes a subpriority on mitigation within the context of low carbon economic development and other co-benefits beyond the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The urgency of climate action and the provision of the requisite support, on mitigation and adaptation, as well as loss and damage, cannot be overstated. The G20 process provides an opportunity to deliberate on and agree to steps to accelerate climate action and support at the required scale reflected in the outcome of the first global stock take.
As a primary outcome of our G20 presidency this year, SA will explore ways that the G20 can leverage opportunities to increase the scale and flows of climate finance. It is paramount for developing economy countries to be actively supported in their efforts to achieve “whole of society and whole of economy” just transitions to sustainable development on the ground, through scaled access to low-cost finance, technology, capacity development and skills transfer.
The fifth priority area is now dedicated to air quality. It is also increasingly recognised that many people globally are exposed to unhealthy and often deadly levels of air pollution, and that the impacts of air pollution extend beyond health — affecting climate, biodiversity, ecosystems and economic development. This is also a key issue that needs to be addressed, and to which this working group can contribute. Furthermore, we should not lose the significance of the synergies between decarbonisation and the improvement of air quality.
The final priority area is oceans and coasts, which focuses on the importance of marine spatial planning as an integrated approach to improving the rational planning, management and governance of the ocean space and marine resources. Marine spatial planning is also critical as a resilience investment, to protect people and critical infrastructure from a climate change-driven increase in extreme weather events.
More broadly, the blue economy approach can make a significant contribution to the livelihood of coastal communities around the globe as well as addressing climate change. Its sustainable, long-term development should be promoted and enhanced through collective action at the level of the G20. It is also recognised that plastic pollution poses a significant threat to coastal and marine environments, affecting marine life, human health and livelihoods, which needs to be addressed in an integrated and co-ordinated manner.
Our final working group meeting and ministerial meeting will be convened on October 13-15 in Cape Town, where it is expected that the final versions of the technical papers and final draft of the ministerial declaration will be discussed. This will be followed by the G20 ECSWG ministerial meeting in Cape Town on October 16-17, where it is envisaged that the ministerial declaration and the other deliverables of the ECSWG will be presented.
• Singh is the deputy minister of forestry, fisheries & the environment, and this opinion piece is a repurposed and edited speech made last week at the second G20 environment and climate sustainability working group meeting in Skukuza, Kruger National Park.
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