This is the first time that the G7 countries (United States, Japan, Canada, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany) have made such a commitment. They pledged, Friday, May 27, to decarbonize the majority of their electricity sector “by 2035”, as well as to end all international financing of projects related to fossil fuels from the end of this year.
“We express our deep concern over the global triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, recognizing that these challenges are inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing, and are largely driven by the activity human rights and to unsustainable consumption and production patterns”, they write in their joint statement, published after a meeting of climate and energy ministers in Berlin. “We are therefore committed to taking immediate, short- and medium-term action during this critical decade, leveraging the synergies between climate and biodiversity action, the clean energy transition and the environmental protection, which should inspire long-term transformative change.
- Carbon-free electricity
Among the main measures, the seven powers then committed to “achieving a predominantly carbon-free electricity sector by 2035”. To achieve this goal, the countries pledge “to support the acceleration of the global phase-out of coal” and to “rapidly develop the technologies and policies necessary for the transition to clean energy”.
A commitment largely welcomed by specialists in the sector. “However, policy reforms will be needed as several G7 countries are not on track to decarbonize their electricity sector by 2035,” said Matthew Gray, analyst at TransitionZero. “What’s missing is an explicit date for phasing out coal,” adds David Ryfish, head of international policy at German NGO Germanwatch. “In order to be able to pressure other major emitters to get off coal, the G7 needs to make it very clear that they will end coal by 2030,” he adds.
It will also be necessary to convince the States which will take part in the COP27 which will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, in June. “Without new concrete pledges of funding for the just energy transition and loss and damage, international solidarity and COP27 remain at risk,” said Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder and executive director of international policy at ECCO, a think tank on climate change. “It will now be necessary for Japan and the United States to follow up, in particular by defining how they will align their energy transition plans to have coal-free energy by 2030”, adds for his part Pieter de Pous, Senior Advisor to the European Think Tank E3G.
Moreover, the problem will largely arise for developing countries, such as India, Indonesia or Egypt. “How will these countries, which still have to electrify entire 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?” France info François Gemenne, researcher at the FNRS at the University of Liège, teacher at Sciences-Po and main author at the IPCC.
- End of fossil fuel financing without a carbon capture project
The ministers also promised to end overseas financing of fossil fuel projects without carbon capture technology by “the end of 2022”. This announcement was made possible thanks to a reversal of Japan, the last country in the group which refused to commit to this question.
Twenty countries, including the other G7 states, had already signed a declaration to this effect last November, during COP 26 in Glasgow. “It is good that Japan, the world’s largest financier of fossil fuels, has joined the other G7 countries,” said Alden Meyer, expert for E3G, to AFP. “We are directly attacking the public financing of fossil fuels, it is an extremely important element”, abounds François Gemenne.
The G7 states also recalled their common objective of eliminating all direct subsidies to fossil fuels “by 2025”. “Rewarding behavior that is harmful to the climate with subsidies (…) is absurd and this absurdity must be eliminated”, commented Robert Habeck, the German Minister for the Economy and the Climate, during a conference of press Friday. According to the NGO Oil Change International, between 2018 and 2020, the G20 countries alone financed such projects to the tune of 188 billion dollars, mainly through multilateral development banks.
- A zero-emission road sector
In addition, the members of the G7 want to achieve a “highly decarbonized road sector by 2030”, an element considered “essential to maintain the temperature at 1.5°C”. To do this, they plan to “significantly increase during this decade the sale, share and adoption of zero-emission lightweight vehicles, including public transportation and public vehicle fleets.” This will also go through “the abandonment of sales of diesel and gasoline cars”, the reduction of “emissions from medium and heavy vehicles” or even support “sustainable and safe recycling of batteries”.
According to David Ryfish, quoted by The world“Japan, due to the pressure exerted by Toyota, was the main obstacle to obtaining a stronger result, such as the end of sales of thermal vehicles in 2035”.
- Aid to vulnerable countries
G7 members also promise to explore “ways to help developing countries make the transition.” Whether it is about the issue of sustainable water, the road sector or the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the powers agree to help vulnerable countries in their transition.
“To help developing countries shift their economies from reliance on fossil fuels to clean energy resources at the necessary pace,” funding must be increased sevenfold “to reach $1 trillion a year by 2030.” , warns Alden Meyer, senior partner at E3G.
As one million species are on the verge of extinction, the members of the G7 stress “the urgency of adopting a new global framework for biodiversity in 2022 and implementing it quickly in order to halt and reverse the decline of biodiversity by 2030”. They assure that “the protection, conservation and restoration of biodiversity are essential to deal with climate change”. The G7 has therefore called for the world conference on biodiversity (COP15) to be held this year. Biodiversity in the high seas is also among the concerns, and the powers have said they are ready to do “everything in their power to end plastic pollution in the world”.