According to Oxfam, the G20 ought to have placed a tax on the financial sector to offer a significant hand up to the 64 million pepole forced into poverty by the economic crisis. The agency called the G20's decision to take a more active role in promoting development a 'highpoint' of the meeting.
WWF warned that sustainable economic recovery need more than brief platitudes from the G20 on green recovery than what it delivered in Toronto. The agency said that the world leaders were still painting the economy in black and white but it must include green. Instead of being a summit of real action, it recycled and reused earlier commitments on fossil fuels. WWF did welcome India's announcement earlier in the week to phase out fossil fuel subsidies on petrol and review the subsidies on diesel and other fuels. The agency was disappointed that the G20 did not agree on any initiatives like the FFT, to raise additional funds for climate adaptation.
Tearfund said the G20 was a missed opportunity to show leadership on climate justice and to set a path to get back on track for a global deal post 2012. Tearfund are calling for at least $200 billion per year of new and additional public finance by 2020 but saw little progress on agreeing new sources such as an FTT an levies on aviation and shipping fuel emissions.
Greenpeace said "important progress was made today in ending fossil fuels". The G20 had taken uneven steps on the Pittsburgh summit's commitment to implement country specific strategies on fossil fuel phase out. According to the agency, some nations deserve more credit than others such as the US. Others, like Canada and Australia failed to take their commitments seriously. However, the Toronto G20 suffered a complete lack of vision on climate financing stating that the funds saved from fuels subsidies could have been diverted to help the climate.
The G20 Toronto Summit Declaration can be read here.
