The Group of Sevens, or G7, pledged on Sunday, June 13 to rapidly scale up technologies and policies that will accelerate the transition away from coal power, including ending new government support for coal power by the end of this year.
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What is Happening?
- The countries in the group confirmed pledges to increase climate finance contributions as part of efforts to reduce emissions and accelerate the move towards clean energy. While this is generally a positive move, some climate groups say that firm cash promises and other details were missing.
The G7 said, “Coal power generation is the single biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions,” adding “continued global investment in unabated coal power generation is incompatible with keeping 1.5°C within reach.”
It continued, “We stress that international investments in unabated coal must stop now and we commit now to an end to new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of 2021.”
- US President Joe Biden pledged after the summit to put USD$2 billion “to support developing countries as they transition away from unabated coal-fired power.”
- The nations vowed to focus on other technologies, including carbon capture, to help speed up the transition away from coal.
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The statement concluded with the group saying, “We will focus on accelerating progress on electrification and batteries, hydrogen, carbon capture, usage and storage, zero emission aviation and shipping, and for those countries that opt to use it, nuclear power.”
- The 47th summit, which happened on 11-13 June in the UK, saw the leaders of the seven G7 member states as well as representatives of the European Union convene to discuss the climate crisis, among other topics.
- However, the group stopped short of implementing the UK ambition to get G7 firmer backing for mandatory reporting of climate risks by companies, which central bankers have said would force investors to consider climate change in their decision making. Instead, the group highlighted the UK’s efforts to spur disclosure and set up a task force on nature-related financial disclosures.
Featured image by: Flickr
