The Group of Seven (G7) summit has set major targets for solar power and offshore wind capacity, agreeing to speed up renewable energy development and move toward a quicker phase-out of fossil fuels, Reuters reports.
The G7 stopped short of endorsing a 2030 deadline for phasing out coal that Canada and other members had pushed for, and left the door open for continued investment in gas, saying that sector could help address potential energy shortfalls.
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“In the midst of an unprecedented energy crisis, it’s important to come up with measures to tackle climate change and promote energy security at the same time,” Japanese industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.
“While acknowledging that there are diverse pathways to achieve carbon neutral, we agreed on the importance of aiming for a common goal toward 2050.”
G7 ministers finish two days of meetings on climate, energy and environmental policy in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo on Sunday.
“Initially people thought that climate action and action on energy security potentially were in conflict. But discussions which we had and which are reflected in the communique are that they actually work together,” Canada’s minister of natural resources Jonathan Wilkinson said.
G7 members pledged to collectively increase offshore wind capacity by 150GW by 2030 and solar capacity to more than 1TW.
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They agreed to accelerate “the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels”—the burning of fossil fuels without using technology to capture the resulting C02 emissions—to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest.
On coal, the countries agreed to prioritise “concrete and timely steps” towards accelerating the phase-out of “domestic, unabated coal power generation”, as a part of a commitment last year to achieve at least a “predominantly” decarbonised power sector by 2035.
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