G20

G20 › Topics › Energy-environment-green-growth

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G20 presidencies have addressed issues related to the environment and energy sustainability from different angles. Based on its extensive expertise on green growth, private investment in clean and climate-resilient infrastructure, fossil fuel subsidies, energy regulation and climate finance, the OECD has supported the G20 in the following areas:

 
ENERGY ARCHITECTURE, ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND REGULATORS’DIALOGUE

 

In 2015 the first G20 Energy Ministers’ Meeting was held. G20 Leaders in 2014 had endorsed the G20 Principles for Energy Collaboration on the functioning of the global energy architecture. In 2015, the focus laid with their implementation in the areas of Energy Efficiency, Energy Access and Renewable Energy. The OECD supported G20 work in all of these work streams, notably contributing a section on renewable energy investment in the Report on G20 Deployment of Renewable Energy and proving inputs to the Energy Access Action Plan. The G20 Energy Efficiency Action Plan provides a framework for the G20 to influence and accelerate the global energy efficiency agenda. In 2015, G20 Energy Ministers welcomed the Voluntary Energy Efficiency Investment Principles for transport, buildings, products, finance, industry and electricity generation. The OECD contributed to the development of the Principles and to the broad work of the Energy Efficiency Finance Task Group, chaired by Mexico and France.


Furthermore, the OECD supported the Energy Regulators’ policy dialogue on "Sound Regulation in Energy Infrastructure", established under the Russia’s G20 Presidency in 2013. The OECD, together with the G20 Russian Presidency and Federal Tariff Service of Russia, organised the G20+ Energy Regulators Workshop in Paris in April 2013 and contributed to the Energy Regulators Statement on Sound Regulation and Promoting Investments in Energy Infrastructure (pdf), adopted by G20 regulators at their meeting in Kazan, Russia.

FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES

In September 2009, G20 Leaders committed to "rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.” Since then, the OECD jointly with other IOs, was requested by leaders to submit reports at summits in Toronto, Seoul, and Cannes. The purpose of these reports was to document the size and scope of fossil fuel subsidies (FFS), with particular emphasis on budgetary transfers and tax expenditures supporting the production or use of fossil fuels in advanced and emerging economies.


In 2013, the OECD also contributed to developing a flexible, country-led methodology for undertaking voluntary peer reviews of countries’ FFS, which later provided the basis for the draft G20 methodology in this area. The following year under the aegis of the Energy and Sustainability Working Group (ESWG), the OECD contributed input to the IO’s report on transitional policies to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. The OECD provided an update report on recent progress in reform on inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption to the ESWG, together with the IEA and in consultation with other IOs.

The Inventory of Estimated Budgetary Support and Tax Expenditures Relating to Fossil Fuels was first released in 2011 and since then updated and expanded. The latest version, released in September 2015 covers all OECD countries along with China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa.


China and the United States volunteered in late 2013 to undertake voluntary peer reviews of each other’s inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies. The OECD chaired is both teams for these exercises, and will be chairing the upcoming peer reviews of Germany and Mexico. Other G20 members have also indicated that they wished to participate in future review rounds.

CLIMATE FINANCE

The OECD prepared papers to support the G20 report on fossil fuel subsidies, options for scaling-up climate finance, and carbon markets. A G20/OECD policy note on Pension Fund Financing for Green Infrastructure and Initiatives (pdf) was welcomed by the G20 Finance Ministers in their November 2012 Communiqué, and the OECD delivered reports on the Policy Guidance for Investment in Clean Energy Infrastructure and the Institutional Investors and Green Infrastructure: Selected Case Studies to G20 Finance Ministers in 2013.


In 2015, the OECD led the IOs’ contributions to the Climate Funds inventory study, carried out under the Climate Finance Study Group, with the aim to reveal all currently operational funds and to help the recipient countries gaining better knowledge of available climate funds. The OECD informed the Leaders’ discussion in Antalya with its study Climate Finance in 2013-14 and the USD 100 billion goal, which provides an estimate of public and private climate finance mobilised by developed countries towards their UNFCCC 2010 Cancun commitment. The OECD also delivered a Toolkit to enhance access to adaptation finance for developing countries that are vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change, including Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African States.

GLOBAL MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION (GMEP)

Prompted by several high profile offshore drilling accidents, G20 Leaders at Toronto initiated the Global Marine Environment Protection (GMEP) Initiative to share best practices to help protect the marine environment from such incidents. The OECD, the International Regulators Forum (IRF) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were asked to establish a website to disseminate best practices. In July 2013, the GMEP Website was presented by the G20 Russian Presidency, recognising OECD’s contribution to the GMEP Initiative.

 
 

GREEN GROWTH

Under the Mexican G20 Presidency, Green Growth was treated as a priority theme and was addressed through a cross-cutting approach. At the request of the G20 and the Mexican Presidency, the OECD partnered with other international organisations to submit two reports to the 2012 Los Cabos Summit: a joint report by the OECD, World Bank, and UN on "Incorporating Green Growth and Sustainable Development Policies into Structural Reform Agendas" (pdf) and a joint report by the African Development Bank, OECD, UN and World Bank on "Green Growth: A Toolkit of Policy Options to Support Inclusive Green Growth" (pdf).

Under the B20, the OECD, as a member of the Green Growth Action Alliance, provided recommendations to the G20 including: promoting free trade in green goods and services, achieving robust pricing of carbon, ending and redirecting inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, accelerating low-carbon innovation and increasing the leverage of private investments.

OECD CONTRIBUTIONS TO G20