UN climate chief calls on G7 to step up action against climate crisis

Apr 30, 2024 05:22 AM IST

UN climate chief Simon Stiell called on the G7 nations to step up their action against the climate crisis and provide adequate climate finance, chiding as “utter nonsense” that the world’s most developed economies “cannot or should not lead way on bolder climate action”.

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Stiell was speaking at the Group of 7 nations’ ministerial summit on climate, energy and environment in Turin, where leaders from France, the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, the European Union countries and host nation Italy have gathered.

“I often hear in forums like this one ‘that we cannot possibly move too far forward, lest we predetermine the outcome of negotiations in the UNFCCC process,’” Stiell said. “As the custodian of the UN process underpinning global climate negotiations, I’m compelled to set the matter straight: It is utter nonsense to claim the G7 cannot – or should not – lead the way on bolder climate actions.”

According to an analysis by independent energy think tank Ember, the G7 are collectively only targeting a doubling of renewable capacity by 2030, leaving a gap of 0.7 TW to reach a tripling. Ember said on April 25 that the upcoming G7 Ministers’ Meeting presents an opportunity for leaders to set an example and build momentum for raised action worldwide.

“Failure to do so risks undermining the global goal at its very first hurdle,” Ember said in the Global Renewable Target Tracker update on April 25. “Given the recent acceleration in renewables deployment worldwide, leaders should feel confident in upgrading the G7 target to a tripling.”

By Monday evening, it became clear that there will be an important decision on phasing out coal in the 2030s in the G7 Communique on Tuesday. “The G7 has just agreed to phase out coal power by the early 2030s – almost all members are already taking major steps to achieve this goal by 2030, in alignment with 1.5°C pathways. This is big step for Japan, the only #G7 country without a domestic coal phaseout commitment,” E3G tweeted.

Stiell emphasised that G7 leading from the front is essential to avoid a global economic disaster, particularly through deeper emissions cuts and bigger and better climate finance this year. He warned the G7 not to invest public funds in fossil fuel subsidies and called for phasing out coal by 2030 to be aligned with the 1.5-degree target.

The success of COP28 drove home an important lesson to us all, that halving emissions this decade is not just a question of reducing the supply of fossil fuels, it is also a question of reducing demand. Demand from the countries around this table that outstrips the capacity of the global climate system to cope, he added.

“I look forward to seeing clear action plans for driving down the demand for dirty emitting fuels embedded in your NDCs early next year,” Stiell said, referring to nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.

To deliver on the New Collective Quantified Finance Goal (NCQG), Stiell said the G7 must make progress on finance, including providing more climate funds this year, properly funding multilateral development banks, reforming those banks and the wider financial architecture to embed climate risks, finding new innovative sources of climate finance, and providing debt relief for the countries that need it most.

Stiell said the involvement of G7 finance ministers and treasurers will be crucial and that “challenging budget conditions” is not an acceptable excuse for failing to deliver substantial new public climate finance pledges.

The UN official said he would gladly call each and every finance minister personally. “I urge you all to take a clear message back to your entire cabinets and policy-making colleagues: We can’t afford to defer and delay. To repeat old text in another communique.”