The energy, climate and environment ministers of these seven major powers, meeting in Japan, made a series of environmental announcements.
Will these commitments be kept? The Ministers of Energy, Climate and Environment of the industrialized countries of the G7 made, on Sunday April 16, during their meeting in Sapporo (Japan), several announcements on the fight against global warming and plastic pollution . Franceinfo summarizes the main advances announced by the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada.
An acceleration of the exit from fossil fuels, without a precise date
Ministers committed to “accelerate” their “exit” fossil fuels in all sectors, but without setting a new deadline. The consumption of fossil fuels – coal, oil, gas – is the main cause of global warming caused by human activities, because it emits a lot of greenhouse gases. This new objective, announced in a joint press release at the end of the meeting, does not concern fossil fuels with CO2 capture and storage devices. Expensive and not always mature technologies, which will only play a secondary role in relation to the reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels.
The G7 countries limit themselves to stressing that this objective is part of their efforts to achieve energy carbon neutrality by 2050 “at the latest”. Last year, the G7 had already committed to decarbonizing its electricity sector for the most part by 2035, a goal reconfirmed on Sunday. Sign of difficult negotiations, the G7 failed to commit specifically to a date for the end of coal for electricity generation, while the United Kingdom, supported by France, had proposed the deadline of 2030 And the group acknowledged, like last year, that investments in natural gas “could be appropriate” to help some countries get through the current energy crisis.
The decision to get out of all fossil fuels nevertheless marks a “strong advance”reacted to AFP the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. “This is an important point of support for being able to extend this approach to the G20 in India and to the UN climate conference (COP28) in Dubai at the end of the year”she said, while admitting that these future global negotiations would not “not be obvious”.
Asked by AFP, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, also welcomed a message from the G7 “combining our concerns for energy security while providing a roadmap in the face of the climate crisis”. Environmental NGOs, on the other hand, are disappointed. “No offense to the rhetorical games of G7 ministers, new investments in gas (…) cannot be compatible” with climate objectives, criticized Collin Rees of Oil Change International.
A reaffirmation of the envelope of 100 billion dollars per year for emerging countries
The G7 reaffirmed its commitment to work with other developed countries to raise 100 billion dollars a year for emerging countries against global warming, a promise dating from 2009 and which was initially to be kept from 2020. A summit to improve climate change. Access to climate finance for developing countries, a sensitive and crucial point for the success of COP28, is notably scheduled for the end of June in Paris.
The end of plastic pollution in 2040
The ministers ont announced their intention to reduce their plastic pollution to zero by 2040. “We are committed to ending plastic pollution, with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040” within the G7, thanks in particular to the circular economy and the reduction or abandonment of disposable and non-recyclable plastics, according to the joint G7 communiqué.
These industrialized countries also welcome the opening of negotiations for an international treaty on plastics. A second negotiating session is to be held in Paris at the end of May. This is a “strong signal” before this next session, welcomed the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu.