“The question of decarbonization will be played out largely outside the G7”explains François Gemenne, researcher at the FNRS at the University of Liège, teacher at Sciences-Po and main author at the Giec, Friday May 27 on franceinfo, after the commitment of the G7 countries to decarbonize the majority of their electricity sector from here 2035. “The challenge today is countries that are emerging or developing countries. How will these countries be able to electrify their territory without access to renewable energies?”asks the researcher.
franceinfo: the ministers of the G7 countries have committed to ending the financing of fossil energy projects abroad by 2022. Is this a symbolic or historic promise?
Francois Gemenne: it’s a bit historic, even if we got used to this kind of litany of promises that often resemble New Year’s resolutions. We are directly attacking the public financing of fossil fuels, it is an extremely important element. So far, it has been a blind spot in the fight against climate change, while the IPCC estimates that it would be possible to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 10% if these public subsidies were ended. . We are tackling this with very close objectives that will make it possible to hold governments accountable for these objectives, since here we are at the end of 2022 for projects abroad and 2025 for projects at home. This means that many of the leaders who make these commitments today will still be in place in 2025 and that we can hold them accountable for these commitments.
There is also the commitment to decarbonize the majority of electricity production by 2035. Do the G7 countries have the means to achieve this objective?
They probably have the means. The big problem for the decarbonization of the electricity sector will be what will happen outside the industrialized countries. The challenge today lies in countries that are emerging or developing countries. In reality, the big question of the decarbonization of the electricity sector will mainly arise in India, Indonesia, Egypt or Mexico. How will these countries, which still have to electrify whole sections of their territory, be able to do so without access to renewable energies and sometimes by simply drawing on the fossil resources they have available? I am less impressed by this announcement which seems to me less significant than that on funding.
“Climate action must absolutely be deployed beyond the borders of industrialized countries.”
François Gemenne, FNRS researcher at the University of Liègeat franceinfo
Are all G7 countries on an equal footing to transform electricity production?
Some of them have some catching up to do, not all of them start from the same starting line. There are countries which are rather advanced in the development of renewable energies, others which are highly nuclearized and some which still depend very largely on fossil fuels. France, for example, is a very nuclear country and therefore decarbonizing electricity production is going to be very easy because it is already largely the case. The challenge for France lies above all in transport, housing and agriculture.