The G7 energy, climate and environment ministers meet on Saturday in Sapporo, northern Japan, for final and “difficult” negotiations until Sunday, at the end of which their announcements in the face of the climate emergency will be particularly scrutinized.
The club of the main industrialized countries is under pressure to show unity and strengthen its action after the last alarming summary report of the intergovernmental group on climate change (IPCC), published in March.
According to the IPCC, global warming caused by human activity will reach 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era from the years 2030-2035.
However, the Paris climate agreement of 2015, which all the members of the G7 say they want to defend relentlessly, aims precisely to limit the increase in temperatures to this level, or failing that, to well below 2°C.
The G7 must also set the tone against global warming before the important deadlines later this year that are the G20 in India and the COP 28 in Dubai, whose President Ahmed al-Jaber made the trip to Sapporo.
Many NGOs have said they fear in recent days that this ministerial meeting of the G7 will ratify a regression on the front of the climate emergency, in particular because of the conservative positions of Japan.
Very dependent on its imports of fossil fuels, Japan wanted to take the opportunity to call for new upstream investments in gas, against the backdrop of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
Tokyo also wants the G7 to recognize its controversial energy transition strategy, consisting in part of using hydrogen and ammonia as co-fuels for its gas and coal-fired power plants.
“The energy situation is different from one country to another”, which is why we must “move towards carbon neutrality by various paths” pleaded Friday in Sapporo the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and ‘Industry (Meti) Yasutoshi Nishimura.
However, Japan seems rather isolated within the G7. “There is a very strong unity of the other members of the G7 to avoid any language favorable to fossil fuels and gas exploration in these negotiations”, assures one on the side of the French Ministry of Energy Transition, recognizing however “difficult” discussions.
“With all of our European partners in particular, we are determined to avoid any backtracking,” according to the same source.
“Strong language” from the G7 on the exit from fossil fuels in electricity “would suit Canada very well”, also assured AFP Steven Guilbeault, the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, on Friday.
“Given the low expectations (on the Sapporo meeting, editor’s note), the result today seems better than many expected,” commented Ed King of the climate communication network GSCC on Friday.
In a new draft of the joint G7 communiqué dated Thursday and obtained by AFP, the group’s countries reaffirm their commitment from last year to fully or mostly decarbonize their electricity sectors by 2035.
They specify that they want to give priority to accelerating their exit from coal in this area and call on other countries to imitate them, a message that seems to implicitly target China in particular.
Concerning natural gas, whose global demand was amplified last year by the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, safeguards should finally prevail in the language of the G7.
The new draft of the final communiqué speaks of restricting investments in this sector and prioritizing the “transition to clean energy through energy savings and the reduction of gas demand”.
“The leaders (of the G7, editor’s note) recognize that gas is not the solution” greeted Mr. King of the GSCC network.
Furthermore, Japan’s proposal to have ammonia and hydrogen recognized as “clean” co-fuels for thermal power plants was moderated.
These technologies must be developed from “low carbon and renewable” sources, prefers to underline the latest version of the G7 text.
15/04/2023 06:54:01 – Sapporo (Japanese) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
