The G7 yesterday pledged to quit fossil fuels faster and urged other countries to follow suit, but failed to agree to any new deadlines on ending polluting power sources such as coal.
The language reflects the depth of disagreements among member states on the balance between climate action and energy security, with host Japan leading a pushback against the most ambitious proposals discussed.
After two days of talks in the northern city of Sapporo, the bloc’s climate and environment ministers vowed to “accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest ... and call on others to join us in taking the same action.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, they offered no new deadlines beyond last year’s G7 pledge to largely end fossil fuel use in their electricity sectors by 2035.
French Minister of Energy Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher said the “phase-out” wording was nonetheless a “strong step forward” ahead of the G20 and UN climate summits.
The UK and France had put forward a new goal of ending “unabated” coal power — which does not take steps to offset emissions — in G7 electricity systems by 2030.
However, with global energy supplies still squeezed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the target faced pushback from other members, including bloc president Japan and the US.
“I would obviously have liked to have been able to make a commitment to phase out coal by 2030,” Pannier-Runacher said.
“It is one issue on which we can still make progress in forthcoming discussions, particularly at COP28,” she said, referring to a UN climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November.
All members of the G7, which also includes Germany, Italy, Canada and the EU, target net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner after signing the Paris Agreement to cap warming at well below 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C.
The ministers had been under pressure to announce bold steps after a major UN climate report last month said that a 1.5°C increase would be seen in about a decade without “rapid and far-reaching” action.
However, campaigners expressed fears ahead of the talks that Japan, supported by Germany and others, could lead backsliding on pledges such as ending new overseas fossil fuel financing.
G7 leaders last year said that the “exceptional circumstances” of the Ukraine war made gas investments “appropriate as a temporary response.”
Yesterday’s statement contains similar language, but also sets multiple parameters around such investments and highlights the “primary need” for “gas demand reduction.”
Still, climate campaigners said that the ambiguity sends the wrong message.
“The science is crystal clear that leaving the door open to investments in new gas or [liquefied natural gas] leaves the G7 off track for 1.5°C,” Oil Change International global public finance comanager Laurie van der Burg said in a statement.
Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura nonetheless characterized the communique as “ambitious” and praised the G7 for “recognizing diverse paths towards carbon neutrality” during the energy crisis.
International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol said he was pleased with the statement.
“It combines our current energy security concerns and it also provides a road map on how we deal with the climate crisis,” he said, adding that Japan had played a “responsible and constructive” role.
However, the bloc stopped short of endorsing Japan’s strategy of burning hydrogen and ammonia alongside fossil fuels to reduce emissions — which climate campaigners say only serves to extend the lifespan of polluting plants.
Yesterday’s statement simply noted that “some countries are exploring” the potential of hydrogen fuels, adding that this should be “aligned with a 1.5°C pathway.”
Attempts to commit to halving emissions from vehicles in the G7 by 2035 also floundered, but the group for the first time pledged to end new plastic pollution by 2040.
The statement also urged a peak in global greenhouse emissions by 2025 at the latest.
Experts say this language is aimed at the world’s largest carbon emitter, China, which is targeting a peak in its emissions by 2030.
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