Fossil fuels are the main cause of the climate crisis and, as a result, almost all countries in the world agreed, last year, to abandon fossil fuels at COP28, which took place in Dubai. However, it was not possible to establish a final date for coal, which was seen as a gap in the negotiations
Ministers from G7 countries have agreed to close all their coal plants by 2035, said Andrew Bowie, UK minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, this Monday, in what is a breakthrough in climate policy that may influence other countries to do the same.
Setting an end date for coal – the most climate-polluting fossil fuel – has been a highly controversial point in international climate negotiations. Japan, which will get 32% of its electricity from coal in 2023, according to climate think tank Ember, has blocked progress on the issue at previous G7 meetings.
“We have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s,” Bowie told Class CNBC in Turin, Italy. “By the way, this is a historic agreement, something we were unable to achieve at COP28 in Dubai last year.”
“So to have the G7 countries gathered around the table to send this signal to the world – that we, the world’s advanced economies, are committed to phasing out coal by the early 2030s – is pretty incredible,” said the British ruler.
The US State Department refused to comment on this G7 agreement. Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new rules that will require coal-fired power plants to capture nearly all of their climate pollution (capture is a form of emissions reduction) or shut down by 2039.
“Just days after the EPA released proposed new rules, which will essentially lead to an accelerated phase-out schedule for most coal plants, this G7 commitment is further confirmation from the US that coal will be phased out sooner or later”, highlighted Katrine Petersen, political consultant at the climate think tank E3G, adding that the commitment now revealed is “a big step forward, in particular for Japan, as the only G7 country that has not yet committed to abandoning coal.”
Many of the other G7 countries already have their own plans in place to phase out fossil fuels. About 16% of the G7’s electricity comes from coal, reports Ember, an independent think tank.
“This is another nail in the coffin for coal,” said Dave Jones, director of Ember’s Global Insights program. “The journey to phasing out coal power has been a long one: it’s been more than seven years since the UK, France, Italy and Canada committed to phasing out coal power, so it’s good to see the United States and especially Japan to finally be more explicit about their intentions.”
Dave Jones warned, however, that while coal power is falling, gas consumption continues. “Coal may be the dirtiest, but all fossil fuels ultimately need to be eliminated,” he stressed.
Fossil fuels are the main cause of the climate crisis and, as a result, almost all countries in the world agreed, last year, to abandon fossil fuels at COP28, which took place in Dubai, but were unable to establish a final date for coal, which was seen as a gap in the negotiations.
The ministers of Energy, Environment and Climate are meeting in Turin for talks, which are expected to end on Tuesday.
The G7 – made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the European Union as a member with special status – tends to lead global climate policy. The group’s decisions often reverberate or influence the entire G20, which includes other major emitters such as China and India, as well as major fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.
