BRISBANE: Australia’s ill-fated attempts to stop G-20 world leaders talking about climate change is not just something of an embarrassment for this year’s host — it signals a shift in focus for the grouping as Turkey prepares to take control next month.

Australia’s push to narrow the focus of the disparate grouping, which represents 85 percent of the world’s economy, to a specific growth goal was praised by some leaders and financial watchdogs.

But others, including Turkey, China and the US, were itching to move beyond the straitjacket of a target to improve economic growth by additional 2.1 percent over five years that Australia attempted to impose.

US President Barack Obama was on Australian soil for just a matter of hours before he stole the limelight with a warning that Australia’s own Great Barrier Reef is at risk from climate change, and pledged $3 billion to help poor countries cope with climate change, quickly joined by Japan, which promised $1.5 billion, matching an earlier contribution from Germany.

The pressure led Australia to reluctantly agree to a call in the meeting’s communique for countries to reveal their environmental targets well ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in September.