G7 puts coal on notice, may boost climate aid

Officials from the Group of Seven wealthy nations announced Friday they will aim to largely end greenhouse gas emissions from their power sectors by 2035, making it highly unlikely 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 electric vehicles would dominate new car sales by the end of the decade.

And in a move aimed at ending the recurring conflict between rich and poor nations during international climate talks, the G7 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.

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

“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 Rome-based campaign group ECCO.

Coal is a heavily polluting fossil fuel that’s responsible for one 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.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry called the agreements reached in Berlin “very comprehensive and forward-leaning.”

However, getting all G-20 countries to sign on to the ambitious targets set by some of the most advanced economies will be difficult, as countries such as China, India and Indonesia remain heavily reliant on coal.

Germany’s energy and climate minister, Robert Habeck, said the 40-page communique couldn’t hide the fact that G7 countries had long been laggards on combating global warming.

“But we’re trying to make up for those things that didn’t go so well in the past,” he said. “Including on climate finance.”

In practice, this means countries need to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest.

LUCA BERGAMASCHI DIRECTOR OF ECCO