Environment ministers from different countries pose for a family picture during the G7 climate, energy and environment summit in Venaria Riale near Turin on April 29, 2024. | Image Credit: AFP
As G7 energy ministers discussed a possible timeframe for phasing out coal-fired power plants on April 29, the UN warned that “excuses” for failing to take bold action on climate change were “unacceptable”.
The Group of Seven meeting in Turin is the first major political session since the world pledged to move away from coal, oil and gas at the UN’s COP28 climate summit in December.
Energy and environmental transition ministers from the G7 met on Monday, the first of two days of talks, to move closer to a common goal of shutting down coal-fired power plants, several sources told AFP.
A European source told AFP they are likely to commit to closing them “in the first half of 2030”.
The latest G7 draft commits to phasing out existing unsustainable coal power generation in our energy systems by the first half of 2030, or holding steady to keeping the 1.5°C warming limit in line with countries’ net zero pathways. ”, said the source.
The fixed time frame is hailed as an important step forward.
UN climate chief Simon Steele urged more industrialized countries earlier Monday to use their political influence, wealth and technologies to end fossil fuel use.
“To say the G7 can’t — or shouldn’t — lead the way on bold climate action is total nonsense,” Steele, who leads the United Nations’ climate change agency, told ministers.
A climate change hotspot
A new report by the World Meteorological Organization shows that the G7, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, is falling far short of its targets.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Turin on Sunday, burning some photos of G7 leaders they accused of failing future generations.
Environmentalists want to know how energy and environment ministers intend to follow through on pledges such as the agreement at COP28 in Dubai to double energy efficiency rates and triple renewable capacity by 2030.
Rome, which this year holds the rotating presidency of the G7, wants Turin to be a “strategic link” between last year’s UN climate talks and COP29 in November in Azerbaijan.
Italy, a climate change hotspot prone to wildfires, droughts and retreating glaciers, is putting “biodiversity, ecosystems, warming seas” high on the agenda, according to Italian Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Frattin.
Ministers are discussing “renewables, energy efficiency, phasing out of fossil fuels” and “next generation nuclear power, fusion, circular economy, critical raw materials, research on biofuels”.
France’s Environment Transition Ministry said in its final statement on Tuesday that the G7 is expected to reduce plastic production to tackle the global scourge of pollution.
Plastics are found everywhere, from the tops of mountains to the depths of the ocean and in the blood and breast milk of humans.
‘more ambitious’
The G7 as a whole accounts for about 38 percent of the global economy and will be responsible for 21 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to the Climate Analysis Policy Institute.
The agency said last week that not a single member of the group is on track to meet existing emissions reduction targets in 2030.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) called on the G7 on Monday to adopt “significantly more ambitious plans to cut emissions”.
“We are seeing islands being swallowed up by seas and record-breaking temperatures making essential activities like agriculture unbearable,” it said.
Italy said the G7 would discuss “innovative” financing models amid calls for more funding to adapt to climate change and more accessible financing for vulnerable countries.
The UN’s Steele said the G7 needed to see a “quantum leap in climate finance as a major deal”.
“Challenging budget conditions are not an acceptable excuse for failing to deliver substantial new public climate finance pledges,” he told ministers.