G7 pledges put coal on notice, could boost climate aid

Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, and Steffi Lemke , Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, open the meeting of the G7 Ministers for Climate, Energy and the Environment in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Berlin -

Officials from the Group of Seven wealthy nations announced Friday that they will aim to largely end greenhouse gas emissions from their power sectors by 2035, making it highly unlikely that those countries will burn coal for electricity beyond that date.

Ministers from the G7 countries meeting in Berlin also announced a target to have a "highly decarbonized road sector by 2030," meaning that zero emission vehicles would dominate the sales by the end of the decade.

In a move aimed at ending the recurring conflict between rich and poor nations during international climate talks, the G7 also recognized for the first time the need to provide developing countries with additional financial aid to cope with the loss and damage caused by global warming.

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The agreements, which will be put to leaders at the G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, next month, were largely welcomed by climate campaigners.

"The 2035 target for power sector decarbonization is a real breakthrough. In practice this means countries need to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest," said Luca Bergamaschi, director of the Rome-based campaign group ECCO.

Coal is a heavily polluting fossil fuel that's responsible for a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. While there are ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, experts say it is almost impossible to reduce it to zero, meaning it will likely have to be the first fossil fuel to be phased out.

G7 members Britain, France and Italy have already set themselves deadlines to stop burning coal for electricity in the next few years. Germany and Canada are aiming for 2030; Japan wants more time; while the Biden administration has set a target of ending fossil fuel use for electricity generation in the United States by 2035.

A common target would put pressure on other major polluters to follow suit and build on the compromise deal reached at last year's U.N. climate summit, where nations committed merely to "phase down" rather than "phase out" coal -- with no fixed date.

The issue is likely to be taken up later this year at a meeting of the Group of 20 leading and emerging economies, who are responsible for 80 per cent of global emissions.

Getting all G20 countries to sign on to the ambitious targets set by some of the most advanced economies will be key, as countries such as China, India and Indonesia remain heavily reliant on coal.

Under pressure to step up their financial aid to poor nations, the G7 ministers in Berlin said they recognized that "action and support for vulnerable countries, populations and vulnerable groups need to be further scaled up."

This includes governments and companies "providing enhanced support regarding averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change," they said.

Developing countries have for years demanded a clear commitment that they will receive funds to cope with the loss and damages suffered as a result of climate change.

Wealthy nations have resisted the idea, however, for fear of being held liable for costly disasters caused by global warming.

"After years of roadblocks, the G7 finally recognize that they need to financially support poor countries in addressing climate-related losses and damages," said David Ryfisch of the Berlin-based environmental campaign group Germanwatch.

"But that recognition is not enough, they need to put actual money on the table," he added. "It is now up to (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz to mobilise significant financial commitments by leaders at the Elmau summit."

Separately, the United States and Germany signed an agreement Friday to deepen their bilateral cooperation on shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy in an effort to rein in climate change.

The deal will see the two countries work together to develop and deploy technologies that will speed up that clean energy transition, particularly in the area of offshore wind power, zero-emissions vehicles and hydrogen.

The U.S. and Germany pledged to also collaborate on promoting ambitious climate policies and energy security worldwide.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said both countries aim to reap the benefits of shifting to clean energy early, through the creation of new jobs and opportunities for businesses in the growing market for renewables.

Such markets depend on common standards of what hydrogen can be classified as "green," for example. Officials will now work on reaching a common definition to ensure hydrogen produced on one side of the Atlantic can be sold on the other side.

Germany's energy and climate minister, Robert Habeck, said the agreement reflected the urgency of tackling global warming. Scientists have said steep emissions cuts need to happen worldwide this decade if the goals set in the 2015 Paris climate accord are to be met.

"Time is literally running out," Habeck said, calling climate change "the challenge of our political generation."