Leaders at the Group of 20 meeting in Bali on Wednesday agreed to pursue efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius and recognized the need to speed up efforts to phase down coal use, in a potential boost to the COP27 climate talks.

Delegates at the United Nations climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where progress towards an agreement by the end of the week has been slow, have been watching the G20 Summit closely for signs that developed nations are willing to make new commitments on climate.

“Mindful of our leadership role, we reaffirm our steadfast commitments, in pursuit of the objective of UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to tackle climate change by strengthening the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and its temperature goal,” a declaration issued at the end of the meeting said.

World governments agreed in 2015 during a UN summit in France to try to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times, a deal dubbed the Paris Agreement that was seen as a breakthrough in international climate ambition.

“We resolve to pursue eff orts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. This will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries,” the G20 statement said.

United States Special Climate Envoy John Kerry said on Saturday that a few countries had resisted mentioning the 1.5 degrees goal in the official text of the COP27 summit.

The G20 declaration urged delegates at COP27 to “urgently scale up” eff orts at the summit on the issue of mitigating and adapting to climate change.

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