The annual G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy, and Environment is this coming weekend, and climate experts are watching with concern. Especially problematic is Japan’s toxic new so-called “Green Transformation (GX)” policy, which is soaked in fossil fuels. Such worrying proposals put out by Japan as G7 President are clashing with messages from civil society leaders, who are calling for action.
"If Japan and the G7 really want to lead on climate, they must massively invest in renewable energy now, and if they won't, they need to get out of the way while the rest of us take action to solve the energy and climate crisis and crisis of peace," stated Svitlana Romanko, the Ukrainian environmental lawyer and Director of Razom We Stand. Addressing the continued financing of LNG gas projects by G7 countries, she continued, "Expanding expensive fossil fuel infrastructure and gas dependance makes no sense at the time when we need to move rapidly away from outdated energy sources to stop climate destruction, which costs trillions, and supports petro-dictators like Putin".
Such clear demands would solve key problems caused by massive public subsidies handed out by G7 countries to build wasteful new gas and fossil fuel infrastructure, costing taxpayers billions while locking in decades of CO2 emissions that will destroy chances of keeping global warming below 1.5℃, as agreed by G7 nations in the 2015 Paris Agreement. This issue is well analyzed by think-tank Ember in the recently published report, with clear projections and recommendations for the G7 to save people and the planet from growing climate catastrophes.
If the G7 is to deliver on its so far inadequate and toothless climate promises, and hope for respect from civil society, they will have to take concrete steps in the opposite direction of their recent actions. They would do well to heed proposals by the Civil7 group, which has just presented to G7 presidency solid policy recommendations (text in full here), which offer clear win-win solutions and calling for G7 nations to:
• Participate in accountability processes that will equip G7 countries to do their equitable fair share and reduce emissions significantly faster. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, emissions must be reduced by at least 43% by 2030 compared to 2019.
• Take the lead in phasing out all fossil fuels – including oil and fossil gas – without resorting to false solutions and dangerous distractions such as geoengineering, ammonia and hydrogen co-firing, and woody biomass.
• Implement a phase-out of coal power in all G7 by 2030 in line with IEA and OECD recommendations.
• Commit to a fully decarbonised energy sector by 2035, ensure the end of new public finance to all fossil fuels, commit to divestment and no new investment in ammonia/hydrogen/woody biomass co-firing at coal- or gas-fired power plants.
• Re-confirm commitment to a just transition without false solutions. Continue to enter, finance and implement Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) with a rights-based approach.
• Ensure that energy security prioritizes energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, instead of diversification of fossil fuel supply.
Furthermore, the climate crisis, and the world, need Japan to use its power as President of the G7 this year to be a climate leader, and not backslide on its stated climate goals and climate finance commitments. Japan and the G7 must stop relying on outdated and expensive gas and coal, especially from Russia, and invest in now cheaper renewable energy to be a clean energy leader. Japan must join other G7 climate, energy, and environment ministers by signing the Glasgow Statement to shift public finance away from gas and coal to clean energy. This could expand the potential cumulative G7 finance shift towards renewable energy to USD 39 billion a year. Such actions will help the world in general, and specifically help Ukraine to defeat the Russian fossil fuelled terror and to become the first post-war country to fully rebuild with renewable, reliable and peaceful energy.
As the state of the climate stands now, with well over thirty years of regular scientific warnings of coming catastrophe, if the G7 doesn't act then they can expect resistance from civil society, which is justifiably outraged by G7 perpetuation of fossil fuelled chaos and war profiteering by major energy companies. With massive climate protests in recent years shutting down the financial centers of London, or Berlin, and taking place across the globe, G7 leaders need to listen to common sense proposals and shift finance to the money-saving clean energy revolution that is already sweeping the world.
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