Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/g20/Pittsburgh_Fact_Sheet_Energy_Security.pdf
THE PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: ACTING ON OUR GLOBAL ENERGY AND CLIMATE
CHANGE CHALLENGES
Today the Leaders at the Pittsburgh Summit made a critical commitment to phase out inefficient fossil
fuel subsidies over the medium term while providing targeted support for the poorest. This
groundbreaking effort will encourage the conservation of energy, improve our energy security, and
provide a down-payment on our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Phase out Fossil Fuel Energy Subsidies: G-20 Leaders committed to phase out inefficient fossil fuel
subsidies over the medium term. This will improve energy security, encourage investment in clean
energy sources, promote green growth, free-up resources to use for pressing social needs such as
health, food security, and environmental protection. They recognized the importance of preventing an
adverse effect on the poorest by providing them with targeted cash transfers and other appropriate
forms of support. This reform will not apply to support for clean energy, renewables or technologies
that dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Energy Security: Cutting energy subsidies leads to reduced consumption, lower import
demand and increased availability of energy for export – all helping to reduce the likelihood of
a future supply crunch. In 2008, demand grew in countries subsidizing oil by nearly 1 million
barrels per day, despite high prices.
• Climate Change: The G-20 accounts for over 80 percent of the world’s energy use. The
OECD and IEA estimate that eliminating fossil fuel subsidies worldwide would reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent or more by 2050. Removing fossil fuel subsidies helps
eliminate market distortions, strengthening incentives for investments in energy efficient
technologies and non-fossil energy supply.
• Economic Growth: Fossil fuel subsidies displace important public investments and drain
government finances, worsen balance of payments, lead to underinvestment in infrastructure,
and can contribute to energy shortages. Twenty of the largest non-OECD governments spend
more than $300 billion in energy subsidies annually.
• Poverty Reduction: Globally, the lowest 40 percent of income earners receive only 15 to 20
percent of the benefit of energy subsidies. The poorest households often lack access to modern
energy services and when they do have access their consumption is so small that many
subsidies offer little economic benefit to them. Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and using
those freed resources for targeted social assistance could significantly improve the quality of
life of low-income households.
• Health and Environment: Phasing out the subsidies that contribute to unsustainable use of
fossil fuels in tandem with international efforts to expand access to modern energy services will
make a substantial contribution to the reduction of air pollution and help save lives.
• Demonstrating Success: After years of increasing fuel subsidies and problems implementing
price hikes, Indonesia instituted a cash transfer system that enabled the government to direct
cash payments to over 19 million households while reducing across-the-board subsidies. This
action improved the national balance sheet while also enhancing the economic condition of the
poorest 40 percent of the country’s population.
Increase Oil Market Transparency and Oversight: The G-20 committed to improving the
functioning of oil markets through increased reporting of oil production, consumption, and stock data
and better oversight of oil commodity futures markets. Timely and accurate data make markets more
efficient and help avoid excessive volatility by reducing uncertainty of supply and demand trends. G-
20 countries agreed to swiftly implement recommendations by the International Organization of
Securities Commissions to improve oil market regulation and to take further steps to oversee related
over-the-counter markets.
Boost Investments in Clean Technologies and Climate Change: The G-20 is committed to a
resilient, sustainable and green recovery. It underscored its resolve to take strong action to address the
threat of dangerous climate change and committed to intensify its efforts to a successful outcome of the
UN climate conference in Copenhagen. G-20 Leaders called on their finance ministers to report back
at their next meeting with a range of possible options for climate change financing, and to make those
options available as a resource in the UNFCCC negotiations.
These efforts build on a number of successful initiatives undertaken by the international community
and the United States this past year, including:
The Major Economies Forum (MEF): President Obama launched the MEF in April 2009, creating a
new dialogue among developed and emerging economies to combat climate change and promote clean
energy. At the July L’Aquila summit, MEF Leaders announced important new agreements to support
the UN climate talks and launched a new Global Partnership to promote clean energy technologies.
Bilateral Climate Partnerships: The United States is accelerating its collaboration with China, India,
Mexico and other key international partners to combat climate change, coordinate clean energy
research and development, and support the international climate talks.
Taking Action at Home: The United States is investing $80+ billion in clean energy through its
Recovery Act. President Obama announced the first ever joint fuel economy/carbon dioxide tailpipe
standards for cars and trucks in May. The United States House of Representatives has passed a
comprehensive energy and climate bill that would promote clean energy investments and lower U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions more than 80 percent by 2050.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/g20/Pittsburgh_Fact_Sheet_Most_Vulnerable.pdf
THE PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: SUPPORT FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE
Support for the world’s most vulnerable individuals and countries is a central aim of the G-20’s
aggressive recovery actions. The G-20 has pursued a strategy that is built around three critical
pillars:
The Expanded Engagement of Effective International and Regional Institutions: To
increase the capacity of emerging market and low-income countries to withstand and recover
from this and future external shocks, the G-20 has from the outset mobilized robust action on the
part of leading international and regional institutions.
• In London, the G-20 called for the multilateral development banks (MDBs), including the
World Bank and the African Development Bank, to expand lending by at least $100
billion above pre-crisis levels. This goal was met by the MDBs within months of the G-
20’s initial request. In addition, over the past year IDA committed $14 billion in
resources for the poorest, $2 billion of which was made available under emergency
procedures, and the African Development Fund (AfDF) front-loaded its financing, with
$4.2 billion in commitments expected in 2009, up from $2.4 billion in 2008.
• The G-20’s work has also led to a dramatic expansion of the IMF’s ability to provide
concessional loans to the world’s poorest nations to $8 billion over 2009–10 and $17
billion through 2014 and an increase in trade finance support for emerging market
countries. Over the past year, IMF financing under current programs to the poorest
countries has more than doubled and currently stands at $4.4 billion.
• Building on these important early successes, the G-20 Leaders in Pittsburgh committed to
support continued concessional lending, including through the IDA and Africa
Development Fund, and to review whether General Capital Increases are needed as the
MDBs enact reforms to meet their core missions.
• The G-20 also agreed to address a critical missing piece of the global economic structure
- a lack of a concessional lending facility for the world’s poorest countries in times of
crisis. The G-20 have asked their Finance Ministers to explore the creation of such a
crisis lending facility within IDA to provide support to the poor in future downturns.
Investments in the Foundations for Long-term, Sustainable Development: The G-20 has also
committed to new initiatives that will not only help the poor, but will also foster economic
growth opportunities for the world’s poorest countries by investing in the foundations of
development: sustained production, new infrastructure and financial access.
• Food Security: With over one billion of the world’s people facing chronic hunger and
the world’s poorest countries hit hard by the 2008 spike in world food prices, President
Obama joined with 34 world Leaders in L’Aquila, Italy to launch a comprehensive food
security initiative. The new initiative will align sustained donor resources in support of
country-led strategies, and has already generated over $20 billion (USD) in donor
pledges. At the Pittsburgh Summit, G-20 Leaders called on the World Bank to create a
Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, a multilateral trust fund to expand
agricultural assistance to low-income countries.
• Expanded Clean Energy Resources for Low-Income Countries: As the developing
world seeks to build out the energy infrastructure needed to support domestic
development and attract investment, the G-20 has also adopted a new series of measures
to help the poor access affordable and reliable clean energy. The Leaders agreed to
increase funding for the World Bank’s new Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program and
for other programs that support the deployment of clean energy resources in the
developing world.
• New Opportunities for Financial Access: In order to sustain recovery and reduce the
vulnerability of the world’s poor to future external shocks, the G-20 is also focused on
tackling the fact that half of the world’s people do not have access to financial services.
The G-20 Leaders have established a G-20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group to
recommend innovative approaches to providing financial services to the poor, including
through national regulatory and policy efforts. Underscoring the importance of small
business development to global economic growth, the G-20 has also launched a new
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Finance Challenge which will partner with the
private sector to support entrepreneurs in poor countries.
Limiting illicit outflows: Those G-20 members who serve as traditional “donors” have
committed to maintaining their ODA levels, while other G-20 members have brought new
development resources to the table. But as the flow of funds to developing countries increases, it
is critical to also prevent its illegal outflow. Corruption and illicit financial flows cost
developing nations billions of dollars per year in public funds that could be used for domestic
investments. The G-20 Leaders recommitted themselves to fighting corruption and reclaiming
this uncounted capital for development by agreeing to increase the transparency of international
aid flows and to strengthen international efforts to recover stolen assets. They called for
ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption and the adoption and enforcement of laws
against transnational bribery, laws like the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. These efforts will
also help prevent future use of public assets for personal gain.