G7 Nations Discuss Phasing Out Coal-Fired Electricity by 2035

The G7 group of the world’s most industrialized nations are discussing a common target to end their coal-fired power generation by 2035 at an energy ministers’ meeting in Italy, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Monday.  

The energy, climate, and environment ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States are meeting between Sunday and Tuesday at a palace near Turin to discuss ways to address climate change.

The meeting “will aim to identify coherent, complementary and interconnected actions to address the ongoing climate, energy, and environmental crisis, with a special focus on the most vulnerable areas and populations,” the meeting’s host Italy, which holds the G7 rotating presidency this year, says.

Diplomats from the seven G7 members held a meeting on Sunday to debate setting a common 2035 as an end date for coal-sourced electricity in these countries. One nation was still opposing the idea as of late on Sunday, according to Reuters’s anonymous source.

A potential common target to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2035 in G7 nations would mark the first major achievement in the reduction of fossil fuels since the COP28 summit in Dubai at the end of last year.

During the annual climate summit, and after much debate overtime, the countries issued a final declaration with a compromise text referencing for the first time a call to all parties to transition away from fossil fuels.

One of the “global efforts” is “Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science,” the text reads.

The Conference of the Parties “Further recognizes the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5 °C pathways and calls on Parties to contribute to the following global efforts, in a nationally determined manner, taking into account the Paris Agreement and their different national circumstances, pathways, and approaches,” the COP28 final declaration says.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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