G7 vows to quit fossil fuel faster, end new plastic pollution by 2040

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Apr 2023 09:56
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The G7 members fail to acknowledge any new deadlines for ending polluting power sources like coal.

Japanese delegate attending the opening session of G7 ministers in Sapporo, Japan April 15, 2023 (Kyodo via Reuters)

G7 environment and climate ministers vowed to end new plastic pollution in their countries by 2040, they said in a statement released Sunday following talks in northern Japan.

"We are committed to end plastic pollution, with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040," it said.

Germany, France, Canada, Britain, and the EU are already part of a multi-national coalition that made the same pledge in 2022.

Around 20 countries committed to ending subsidies for the international fossil fuel sector at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021.

On his account, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke applauded the bloc's new plastic pollution pledge as an "ambitious goal" at a press conference after the two-day talks in Sapporo.

The phase-out will be achieved by "promoting sustainable consumption and production of plastics, increasing their circularity in the economy, and environmentally sound management of waste," as per the statement.

The amount of plastic garbage produced worldwide has doubled in the previous 20 years, and only 9% of it is properly recycled, as per the OECD group of developed countries.

The global production of #plastic is measured in millions of metric tons. The majority of the plastic #garbage that is left over eventually finds its way into our oceans, even if half of it is recycled, burned, or dumped in landfills. pic.twitter.com/i90dQKqJ9B
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 18, 2023

According to the UN, by 2040, the amount of plastic entering the oceans would have nearly tripled.

No new deadline for quitting fossil fuels

The G7 also vowed to quit fossil fuels faster, calling on other countries to join. However, they failed to acknowledge any new deadlines for ending polluting power sources like coal.

The rhetoric underlines the depth of the alliance's disputes about how to strike a balance between climate action and energy security.

This comes as the West's sanctions on Russian gas and coal prompted some European governments to rethink coal, one of the most polluting ways of producing energy.

Following two days of discussions in the northern city of Sapporo, the bloc's climate and environment ministers vowed to "accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest... and call on others to join us in taking the same action."

However, they did not set any new deadlines beyond the G7 agreement from the previous year, which called for the end of fossil fuel use in their electricity sectors by 2035.

France's energy transition minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said as quoted by AFP the "phase-out" wording was nonetheless a "strong step forward" ahead of the G20 and COP28 summits this year.

"The most important progress we have made is clearly the fact that we agree to move away from non-carbon-offset fossil fuels," she added.

"I would obviously have liked to have been able to make a commitment to phase out coal by 2030," Pannier-Runacher said.

But "it is one issue on which we can still make progress in forthcoming discussions, particularly at COP28."

Call to slash 'gas demand'

The Group of Seven industrialized nations reportedly target net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner after inking the Paris Agreement to cap warming at well under 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C.

The ministers had come under pressure to make bold announcements after a major UN climate study issued last month warned that if "rapid and far-reaching" action was not taken, temperatures will rise by 1.5°C in approximately ten years.

Food insecurity, air intoxication, diseases, drought, and deteriorated worker productivity are just some of the effects that the #climatecrisis has so far triggered on a global scale. pic.twitter.com/VeSFgFfrQL
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 28, 2022

However, activists highlighted concerns ahead of the discussions that Japan, with the assistance of Germany and others, may lead to reneging on commitments like ending new overseas fossil fuel financing.

G7 leaders said last year that the "exceptional circumstances" of the war in Ukraine made gas investments "appropriate as a temporary response."

Sunday's statement includes similar rhetoric, however, it also sets several parameters around such investments and acknowledges the "primary need" for "gas demand reduction."

Still, climate campaigners cautioned the ambiguity sends the wrong message.

"The science is crystal clear that leaving the door open to investments in new gas or (liquefied natural gas) leaves the G7 off track for 1.5C," said Laurie van der Burg, public finance campaign co-manager at Oil Change International.