G-7 Ministers agree to phase out coal-”red power plants by 2030s
G-7 Energy Ministers have agreed a time frame for phasing out coal-red power plants, a British Minister said on Monday, as the UN warned “excuses” for failing to take bold actions on climate change were “not acceptable”.
The Group of Seven meeting in Turin is the rst big political session since the world pledged at the UN’s COP-28 climate summit in December to transition away from coal, oil and gas.
On the rst of the two days of talks, energy and ecological transition ministers from the G-7 agreed to committing to a common target of shutting down coal-red power plants, according to British Nuclear and Renewables Minister Andrew Bowie.
“We do have an agreement to phase out coal in the rst half of the 2030s”, Mr. Bowie told CNBC on the sidelines in Turin, calling it “an historic agreement”.
A European source conrmed that the G-7 looked likely to commit to close the plants “in the rst half of the 2030s”.
The latest G-7 draft commits to “phase out existing unabated coal power generation in our energy systems during the rst half of 2030s or in a timeline consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5°C temperature rise within reach, in line with countries’ net zero pathways”, the source said.
Asked to conrm a deal for a phase out by 2035, Italian Environment and
Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said the timeline was “a hypothesis”.
“There is a technical agreement on it, but we are working on the political aspect,” he told journalists.
A French political source said “we’re moving towards an ambitious agreement, in particular on the e ective phase-out of coal”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell earlier on Monday urged the highly industrialised countries to use their political clout, wealth and technologies to end fossil fuel use.
“It is utter nonsense to claim the G-7 cannot — or should not — lead the way on bolder climate actions,” Mr. Stiell, who leads the United Nations climate change organisation, told the Ministers.