Italy:
G7 energy and climate ministers on Tuesday agreed a timetable for phasing out coal-fired power stations, setting a target for the mid-2030s.
The two-day meeting of the Group of Seven in Turin is the first major political session since the world pledged to transition away from coal, oil and gas at the UN's annual climate summit COP28 in Dubai in December.
The G7 has committed to continue phasing out existing coal-fired electricity generation in our energy systems by the first half of 2030, the final statement said.
However, it left some wiggle room, saying countries could “follow a timeline consistent with keeping a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise within reach, in line with countries' net-zero pathways”.
It also reserves a place for coal energy if it is 'decommissioned', meaning its emissions are captured or limited by technology – something criticized by many as unproven and a distraction from reducing fossil fuel use.
The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Negotiations over a fixed date were reportedly difficult. Some countries, and many environmentalists, had pushed for a 2030 limit, but Japan – which is heavily dependent on coal – was reluctant to set a date at all.
The leaders of the G7 countries will make their own declaration after a summit in southern Italy in June.
“What about gas?”
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times – with a safer limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible.
To maintain the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit, the UN's panel of climate experts said emissions would need to be cut by almost half this decade, but they would continue to rise.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 – a key milestone to limit global warming – advanced economies must end all power generation from unabated coal-fired power stations by 2030.
Franck Riester, the minister representing France on climate issues, said the coal phase-out date was “a strong commitment and a strong signal from the G7”.
But Andreas Sieber of environmental campaign group 350.org said it was “important but not enough progress”, while policy institute Climate Analytics said “2035 is too late”.
“Many of these countries have already publicly committed to phasing out data before 2030, and have only a small amount of coal capacity anyway,” Jane Ellis of Climate Analytics said in a statement.
She also pointed out that it was “noticeable that gas was not mentioned”, despite it being the largest source of global increases in CO2 emissions over the past decade.
Germany – Europe's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases – is unwilling to phase out gas, as is G7 host Italy, which is investing in new domestic gas facilities.
'Can contribute'
G7 ministers also tackled the thorny issue of plastic pollution amid a heated debate over how best to draw up a treaty to tackle the scourge.
Plastic waste is now found everywhere, from the tops of mountains to the ocean floor and in human blood and breast milk.
Broadly speaking, the debate is about whether we should focus on reducing production or encouraging recycling.
Ministers said they were “committed” to reducing and, if necessary, limiting global plastic production, and renewed their commitments to end plastic pollution by 2040.
That came as a penultimate round of U.N.-led negotiations to solve plastic pollution concluded in Canada with a world-first pact said to be within reach by the end of the year — but without a production cap.
Climate observers are pushing for more money for climate change adaptation and energy systems for developing countries, and all eyes will be on the G7 finance ministers meeting at the end of May.
Ministers in Turin stressed on Tuesday that efforts to raise money to help poorer countries cope with climate change must also “include those countries that are able to do so”.
Under a UN climate treaty signed in 1992, only a small handful of high-income countries that dominated the global economy at the time were required to pay climate finance – with the exception of China, which has since grown richer and is now the world's largest. polluter.
“By making it clear that we have called on other countries to contribute, we want China to join us in this direction,” Riester told AFP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)