SAPPORO, Japan — Environment and energy ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations are poised to endorse faster progress toward ending reliance on fossil fuels, including natural gas, at a meeting here, sources close to the talks said.
The phaseout will target so-called unabated uses of fossil fuels — those unaccompanied by measures to capture or reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The ministers are scheduled to issue a joint statement on Sunday, and talks on the text are ongoing. The statement is not expected to set a target date for ending the use of CO2-spewing coal-fired power plants.
Adding relatively cleaner-burning natural gas to the list would mark a change from last year’s meeting, when ministers agreed to phase out unabated coal power generation. European and other nations have called for setting a time frame for this process.
This year’s G-7 president Japan, which lags behind Europe in the transition to renewable energy and has made little progress on restarting nuclear power plants, still relies heavily on coal power.
G-7 nations face the challenge of fighting climate change with ensuring energy security, the importance of which has been underscored by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Environment and energy ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations are meeting in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo. (Photo by Kazunari Hanawa)The 196-nation Paris Agreement sets a goal of limiting global warming from preindustrial times to within 1.5 C. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in March that greenhouse gas emissions in 2035 would need to be 60% lower than in 2019 to achieve this goal.
Countries are to submit their 2035 goals to the U.N. by 2025.
The G-7 ministers’ statement will also mention synthetic fuels, alternatives to gasoline or diesel that are made from hydrogen and CO2 using renewable energy.
The European Union agreed in March to make an exception for synthetic fuels in its proposed 2035 ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars.
The G-7 will create an action plan for ensuring stable supplies of critical minerals needed for batteries and other electric vehicle components. The G-7 is expected to commit billions of dollars to promote joint development of mines and initiatives to recycle minerals recovered from electronic waste.
