Climate change is a formidable global challenge. Left unmanaged, the consequences of a changing climate will have significant negative impacts on health, economics, politics, security and ecology. Today, the world remains far from meeting its agreed-upon climate targets and is not on a sustainable pathway for reaching them.

The Biden Administration has come into office looking for opportunities to use U.S. leadership and multilateral engagement to catalyse more ambitious policies to tackle climate change. Encouraging greater action is a difficult task made more onerous by the economic pressures resulting from COVID-19. Working with other countries is also fraught with the tension between countries and the stresses and strains that exist throughout the multilateral system.

The current moment of economic and geopolitical turmoil does, however, afford some near-term opportunities at the nexus of economic policy, development and trade. This report proposes three G20 initiatives that could help the Biden Administration meet its goals: the mobilisation of green investment, the enablement of green debt relief, and the promotion of green industrial policy.

Each proposal targets an opportunity created, or exaggerated, by the COVID-19 crisis. Each takes advantage of existing momentum within the G20. Each requires U.S. leadership and collaboration with other like-minded countries to advance. Most importantly, each would deliver tangible progress toward shared climate and development goals, moving beyond empty promises and unaccountable targets and toward tangible reforms.