The G20 group was deeply divided on oil on Saturday, deciding not to call for an exit from fossil fuels, but to support, for the first time, the tripling of renewable energies by 2030.

The G20's commitment to renewable energies, reached at the New Delhi summit, was seen as a "glimmer of hope" for some and a "low" for others, considering that the decision comes three months before COP28, the 28th United Nations conference on climate change, which will be held from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai.

The future of fossil fuels, the main cause of the increasingly severe climate crisis, is this year at the center of the international negotiations that will culminate in December at COP28.

An exit from fossil fuels without carbon dioxide (CO2) capture is also considered "indispensable" by the first official stocktaking report on the Paris Agreement, published on Friday by the United Nations (UN). The G7 - Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom - has already approved this year the acceleration of the exit from fossil fuels, but without a defined timetable.

At the end of the G20 summit, a group of countries that account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the final declaration calls for "accelerated efforts to reduce the consumption of electricity from coal", which excludes gas and oil, and reaffirms the commitment to "reduce and rationalize subsidies for inefficient uses of fossil fuels in the medium term", as in other previous summits.

The G20, whose geopolitical differences are numerous, whether over Ukraine or because of the rivalry between the United States and China, is also opposed on the future of oil, with major producers such as Saudi Arabia very reluctant on the subject.

"The leaders agreed on the minimum, a repeat of the Bali G20 commitment in 2022 to phase out coal," said Lisa Fischer, an expert from the E3G group on climate change, quoted by Lusa.

However, the G20 leaders meeting in New Delhi recognize that limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the most ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement, "requires a rapid, strong and sustained reduction in emissions of 43% by 2030 compared to 2019", according to the recommendations of the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which points to a peak in emissions by 2025.

Although 2023 is on course to become the hottest year ever recorded, "this G20 should show the way to a future without fossil fuels", reacted Friederike Roder, vice-president of the NGO Global Citizen, denouncing "a very bad sign for the world".

The reduction of fossil fuels is one of the ambitions of the COP28 president: Sultan Al Jaber himself, at the same time head of the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates - ADNOC, considered their sharp reduction "inevitable and essential", once the clean energy system of the future has been built.

On this subject, the G20 has stated for the first time that it will "continue and encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacity" by 2030, a goal that should be met with consensus at COP28.