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There were few new measurable commitments in the joint communiqué of G7 climate, energy and environment ministers issued on April 30, 2024, but the 35-page document did cover some substantive thematic content.
The promise to phase out unabated coal in the first half of the 2030s is not only inadequate, it also shows a profound lack of urgency. Keeping the 1.5C warming limit within reach requires a complete phase-out of coal in the G7 (and other Annex 2 and OECD countries) by 2030. The empty rhetoric of emissions reductions used by the G7 undermines the impact of the promise to end financial support for coal-fired power generation. Even more frustrating is the section on moving away from fossil fuels, which does not detail a clear plan and pathway to reduce reliance on oil and gas, instead relying on abstract intentions and dangerous, unproven technologies such as CCUS, nuclear power and fusion.
It is now widely recognized that the scale of climate ambition is linked to the availability and accessibility of finance, especially low-cost, low-risk finance. While ministers stressed that public, grant and concessional finance are “critical aspects” of support for developing countries, the communiqué provided little information on how G7 countries plan to act on this recognition. Instead, the communiqué made clearer the intention to significantly increase the use of blended finance and to mobilize private finance for clean energy development in developing countries, which can be more costly and risky than grant and concessional public finance.
On adaptation, G7 ministers reiterated their commitment to double adaptation finance. Although ministers have agreed to prepare a report on this goal, the communique did not mention the shortfalls of this goal or provide a roadmap to achieve it. However, on the positive side, the commitment also includes the launch of the “G7 Adaptation Accelerator Center” to promote partnerships for adaptation action in developing countries.
While G7 ministers succeeded in covering a wide range of topics, they made little progress in promoting fair and equitable climate action. While recognizing the need for scaled-up ambition and the urgency of climate action, the communique sought to shift responsibility away from the purview of the G7 and the wider developed world.
Statements from civil society representatives
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of the Climate Action Network, said:
“The G7 has once again shown a glaring lack of ambition when it comes to financing developing countries to combat the climate crisis. This group of wealthy countries easily finds money to support wars and the fossil fuel industry, but can never seem to find the money to address their debt for the climate crisis. The G7 needs to pay up and stop funding the wrong things.”
Avantika Goswami, climate change program manager at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India, said:
“The G7 countries alone account for nearly half (42%) of CO2 emissions since 1900, and 39% of fossil fuel consumption since 1965. As historical polluters, they are dragging their feet on phasing out coal use with a clear and urgent timetable. While these countries have the resources to rapidly decarbonize their energy systems, they remain heavily dependent on oil and gas. This eats into the carbon space that developing countries would have gained as they improved prosperity and met their development goals, and puts us on a path to destroy the planet.
Moreover, the focus on ‘unabated’ coal power further undermines the G7’s commitment by creating loopholes for unreliable technologies such as carbon capture and storage, which have so far proven incapable of capturing emissions at scale.”
Nithi Nesadurai, Director and Regional Coordinator of Climate Action Network Southeast Asia, said:
“The G7’s commitment to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s without abatement is woefully inadequate. It demonstrates a lack of leadership and urgency in tackling climate change. The decision not to phase out coal sooner puts at a disadvantage developing countries that are committed to moving away from coal in an equitable way. We will now be faced with the question: ‘If the world’s richest countries are not serious about phasing out coal sooner, why should we adopt more ambitious phase-out dates?’”
Tracy Carty, global climate politics expert at Greenpeace International, said:
“The commitment to phase out coal is too little, too late. If they are serious and meet what the science says is needed to limit global warming to 1.5°, the G7 must abandon this planet-destroying fuel by 2030. The climate emergency demands that they do more than stop at coal. Fossil fuels are destroying people and the planet, and we urgently need a commitment to rapidly phase out all fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas.
“The G7’s insistence on supporting fossil fuels in the face of climate catastrophe is worrying. Fossil fuels are neither needed, nor cheap, and are certainly not a ‘transition fuel’ to a safe climate. The biggest fossil fuel threat facing rich countries today comes from the rapidly expanding LNG industry. We need to urgently shift to less, not more, gas, and to a strong push for renewables.”
Andreas Sieber, Deputy Director of Global Campaigns at 350.org, said:
“The G7 agreed to phase out domestic coal power in the first half of the 2030s, hinting at progress but leaving room for more urgent climate crisis phase-outs. To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, the G7 must phase out coal by 2030 and continue to push for the G7’s commitment to phase out all fossil fuels, including oil and gas, and reject dangerous technologies such as nuclear power.
The world’s largest economy must provide financing on a massive scale to support the global renewable energy transition, especially to the countries of the South, and urgently end funding for fossil fuels at home and abroad.”
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Global Head of Climate and Energy at WWF, said:
“The G7’s commitment is an important signal that major economies are starting to get serious about the dirtiest forms of energy. But if we are to move toward the security and prosperity that a 100% renewable electricity generation system can bring, then these countries need to phase out all coal by 2030. They must also make a similar commitment to phase out oil and gas by 2050. The G7 countries have an opportunity to lead the world in setting the pace for climate action. They have the power to transform their energy sectors at the scale and speed needed to limit warming to 1.5°C. They must do better.”
Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada, said:
“G7 ministers – from the countries most responsible for the climate crisis – have started to consider what the global stocktake means for them domestically, but they have done so haphazardly. As the world’s largest historical polluters and producers of fossil fuels, they must reckon with the fact that limiting warming to 1.5°C requires phasing out coal by 2030, and setting a timetable for an equitable transition away from oil and gas. Instead, they are confused about the role of public investment in gas, undermining COP28’s signal on energy transition.
While environment ministers recognize that trillions of dollars must be mobilized to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, leaders and finance ministers must now commit real money to meet new fiscal targets to make a just transition a reality.
The G7 Ministerial Communiqué is still some distance away from achieving the 1.5°C target. Canada will take over the G7 presidency next year, midway through a critical decade. Canada must take the lead in guiding G7 countries to step up efforts to transition away from fossil fuels in their NDCs, end fossil fuel subsidies, meet biodiversity financing commitments, and scale up support for adaptation and loss and damage at home and abroad.”
Evan Gach, Japan Climate Action Network Node Coordinator, said:
“Setting out a baseline timetable for phasing out coal-fired power generation in line with the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement is a major step forward for the G7 and a strong signal to the world that we must significantly accelerate the phase-out of coal to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
However, the scientific community has consistently pointed out that achieving the Paris goals requires the G7 to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2030 at the latest. The G7 must show leadership by taking serious, concrete steps to phase out domestic coal plants on a timetable consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement and support global coal exports.
This starts with a commitment to recognize a 1.5°C consistent pathway and to close all domestic coal plants by 2030. It also means developing concrete roadmaps and implementing policy measures to ensure a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, ending plans to extend the life of coal power using unproven and ineffective technologies such as hydrogen/ammonia co-firing, and providing adequate finance, technical assistance and other forms of support for countries to accelerate their own transition away from fossil fuels.”
Candy Ofime, Climate Justice Researcher at Amnesty International, said:
“This is not the coal target we need, and it will not achieve climate justice. The G7 countries, which have used coal for more than a century to generate electricity, have pledged to end the use of this pollutant by 2035, but this commitment is far too late and ineffective with unacceptable conditionalities. Ending coal-fired power generation comes too late for those suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Coal is one of the dirtiest energy sources and burning it has huge health impacts, particularly in low-income countries and marginalized, often racially frontline communities around the world. Protecting human rights requires an urgent, comprehensive, fair and funded phase-out of all fossil fuels. A just and equitable phase-out means ending funding for coal production and coal energy around the world. During this transition, the rights of coal workers must be protected.
“The agreement does not appear to limit the use of coal in steel production, which accounts for about 30% of coal consumption, and the commitment to phase out so-called ‘unabated’ coal is misleading. Emission reductions rely on the use of carbon capture and storage, and other technologies such as co-firing of ammonia and hydrogen with coal, which are not proven at scale and may carry other risks. Coal pollution cannot be adequately abated and harms health and the climate whenever it is used. The agreement must not encourage so-called natural gas (mainly methane) as an energy alternative. Its extraction is increasingly associated with emissions of this extremely powerful greenhouse gas, a major cause of global warming.
“As the world’s highest-income countries, and among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, the G7 has the greatest responsibility to help low-income countries transition away from all fossil fuels.”
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