Negotiations amongst the G20 nations have failed to agree on a pledge to reduce the use of fossil fuels, as the Financial Times reports.

According to the FT, several countries led by Saudi Arabia blocked the initiative, wanting to instead focus on the development of carbon capture technologies rather than the phasing down the use of fossil fuels. G7 countries (USA, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, the UK, and Japan, along with the EU) have already agreed a text committing to such a phase down, but of the G20 countries, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia are said to be the most opposed to a committed phase-down, though other countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, Australia and South Africa are also major producers of fossil fuels.

The failure to reach an agreement will make the issue perhaps more pressing at the COP28 conference to be held in United Arab Emirates between 30 November and 12 December this year. It also comes as northern hemisphere average air temperatures have been at their highest in modern times, with Izidine Pinto of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute saying that “European and North American temperatures would have been virtually impossible without the effects of climate change. In China it was around 50 times more likely to happen compared to the past.”