The G-7 countries agreed in Berlin to largely decarbonize their electricity production by 2035. Opec are asking them to increase oil production.
Coal-fired power plants like this plant in Gelsenkirchen should disappear in the G-7 countries “by the 1930s”.
“Get out of coal”: The group of seven leading industrial nations Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Canada and the USA (G-7) have committed themselves for the first time to the goal of a “predominantly decarbonized power supply by 2035”. This self-commitment is recorded in a communiqué that the climate, energy and environment ministers of the G-7 issued on Friday in Berlin after two days of consultations have published. In addition to phasing out coal, decarbonisation of the power supply also implicitly includes phasing out conventional gas-fired power plants.
Japan and USA are slowing down
The goal is supplemented with the first commitment to end coal-fired power generation. However, this sentence does not have a target date. Japan and the USA are said to have resisted a specific date – the year 2030 was under discussion. Germany currently chairs the G-7. As one of the hosts, the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Robert Habeck, admitted to the media that these formulations did not mean that every single power plant in the G-7 would be phased out. But if you take the two commitments together, it follows that “by the 1930s, the phase-out of coal in all G-7 countries must have been well advanced”. That is much more concrete than before; the conference was a step forward.
The reason given for phasing out coal is climate protection, since the generation of electricity from coal causes particularly high emissions of CO2 connected is. The G-7 also want to “highly” decarbonize the transport sector by 2030. In addition, the ministers agreed on a common understanding of the definition of an almost emission-free production of steel and cement, which makes the goal of climate neutrality in these sectors comparable.
With the coal phase-out, coal mining in opencast mines, here in Garzweiler, will also become obsolete.
reduction of subsidies
The G-7 countries pushed ahead with their commitment to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels. In the communiqué, they commit to ending “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025. They also want to end direct international public financing of fossil fuels by the end of 2022. International financing means, for example, public payments in the form of development aid, export financing or the promotion of investment or trade. Affected are projects in which the CO2 is not deposited.
What is particularly new is that Japan is also joining in the ending of international financing. To some extent at the other end of the spectrum, the G-7 countries have committed themselves, among other things, to doubling funding for measures to adapt to climate change in developing countries by 2025, together with other countries.
praise from environmentalists
The ministers even received praise from environmental lobbies in their first reactions: The development and environmental organization Germanwatch, for example, drew in a broadcast an “overall positive conclusion” of the G-7 resolutions. Among other things, she emphasizes the obligation to decarbonize electricity production as far as possible by 2035 and Japan’s approval of the end of international financing of fossil fuels.
The meeting took place against the background of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. It has not only led to a sharp rise in energy prices, but also prompted the West to become independent of Russian energy supplies as quickly as possible. At the same time, there is a fear that Moscow could turn off the gas supply as a counter-sanction. In the longer term, all of this promotes a more efficient use of energy and the switch to renewable energies, which are striven for in the service of climate protection anyway.
In the short term, however, the energy crisis triggered by the war also led to measures such as the construction of new German terminals for the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the availability of coal-fired power plants as a reserve and the government’s curbing of energy prices, which run counter to the long-term goals of climate protection.
Appeal to OPEC
Against this background, the G-7 ministers emphasize, among other things, that the current crisis is strengthening their resolve to accelerate the transition to clean energy and that any relief measures for the benefit of companies and citizens must be time-limited and well-targeted. At the same time, they call on the oil and gas producing countries to react “responsibly” to the shortages on the international markets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has a key role to play here. This can be read as a request to OPEC to increase production.
On the fringes of the meeting, representatives of Germany and the USA signed an Declaration on a new climate and energy partnership between the two states. In working groups, cooperation will initially be promoted in the areas of hydrogen, offshore wind energy, zero-emission vehicles and cooperation with third countries. This partnership was initiated last year by US President Joe Biden and then Chancellor Angela Merkel.
You can contact the Berlin business correspondent René Höltschi Twitter follow.