New Delhi: The G7 climate change, energy, and environment ministers of rich nations wrapped up their two-day meeting in Sapporo with an agreement to drastically expand offshore wind power by 2030, but stopped short of endorsing a 2030 deadline for phasing out coal and leave the door open for continued investment in fossil gas.
At a meeting hosted by Japan, the G7 countries set the urgent need to reduce global GHG emissions by around 43 per cent by 2030 and 60 per cent by 2035 aligned to 1.5 degrees Celsius and in light of the most recent IPCC report.
The G7 countries commit to “fully” or “predominantly” decarbonise their power grids no later than 2035 and accelerate the phase-out of domestic unabated coal power.
They agreed to substantially increase the pace and scale of deployment of renewables and committed to cut demand for gas as a primary response to the energy crisis and showed commitment to massively expand solar and offshore wind.
In a renewable boost, the G7 Climate and Environment Ministers have agreed to a breakthrough acceleration in solar and wind energy signalling a massive boost for renewable energies — collectively increasing offshore wind capacity of 150 GW by 2030 and solar PV to more than 1TW by 2030 — and the increasing deprioritization of gas, coal and fossil fuels in a bid to limit global temperatures rises to 1.5 degrees.
On the coal phase out divisions, the ministers committed to “fully” or “predominantly” decarbonise their power sector by 2035 but they failed to agree to a proposal made by the UK and Canada to phase out coal by 2030.
Negotiators told a news agency on Monday that this saw objections from Japan, the US and the EU. Instead ministers agreed that there should be no further need for coal power stations either within the G7 or globally.
The caveat of “predominantly” is seen as a direct result of Japan’s failure to adopt more ambitious domestic power sector decarbonisation plans.
The ministers also agreed to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels in order to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050. They recognise that the fossil fuel sector must achieve the fastest and deepest emissions reductions to reach 1.5 and “reduce the likelihood of reaching climate tipping points”.
Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency said: “With this in mind, the push by some companies and governments to build new large-scale fossil fuel projects is not only a bet against the world reaching its climate goals — it is also a risky proposition for investors who want reasonable returns on their capital.”
Agencies

KR Desk