Deliver on Climate Finance, Say Experts as Leaders of World’s Richest Nations Meet for The G7 Summit

Climate finance and plans to transition away from all fossil fuels are likely to be on the agenda when seven of the world’s most advanced economies meet this week in Italy for the 50th G7 Summit. Though not a member of the group, India has been invited to attend the crucial meet along with a few other nations from June 13-15.

The leaders of the influential group led by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US are expected to sign off on the agreement reached by their Environment Ministers in April. The ministers had agreed to phase-out existing unabated coal power generation by the first half of 2030s, and submit their updated climate pledges at least 9-10 months ahead of COP30 in Baku with the highest possible ambition that aligns with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also left for Italy on Thursday, and will attend the outreach session on the summit on June 14 – his first visit after assuming charge for the third straight term.

URGENT NEED TO FUND CLIMATE ACTION

Climate finance remains the big elephant in the room. The G7 led by the world’s wealthiest economies is under pressure to increase financial support to developing countries who are dealing with mounting debt, and need funds for climate action. According to recent reports, the current financial requirements add up to over $5.8trillion by 2030.

Experts say the countries cannot continue to ignore the urgent need because decisions made at the summit will determine what progress can be achieved at the G20 meeting in Rio, and UN Climate Summit (COP29) in Baku later this year where a new climate finance goal — New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) — has to be adopted.

“The G7 keeps reiterating its commitment to climate and development finance but has so far failed to deliver. The G7 is the group that needs to do the heavy-lifting to keep the world on track to limit temperature rises to 1.5℃. It can do this by redirecting fossil fuel finance to clean energy, alleviating debt in developing countries and setting clear ambitious climate finance targets to support the transition at home and abroad,” said Luca Bergamaschi, Co-founding Director, ECCO.

END PUBLIC FINANCING IN FOSSIL FUELS, GAS

G7 — responsible for 21% of the global emissions — is also expected to discuss issues related to phase-out coal, fossil fuel subsidies, gas and renewable energy as well as energy storage. The discussions on transitioning away from all fossil fuels — coal, gas and oil — and ending inefficient fossil fuel subsidies will be keenly watched, say experts.

“The problem is that whilst coal power has already been falling, gas power has not. G7 nations already promised to “fully or predominately” decarbonise their power sectors by 2035, and that would mean phasing out not only coal by 2035 but also gas. Coal might be the dirtiest, but all fossil fuels should ultimately be phased out,” said Dave Jones, Director, Ember’s Global Insights Programme.

According to experts, a comprehensive plan by G7 to phase-out of all fossil fuels source-by-source with clear funding commitments for developing countries to transition to renewable energy is the only way to reassure the world that the rich economies are serious about limiting temperatures to 1.5℃ – as agreed under the 2015 Paris Agreement. It is urgent that the G7 finally closes the loopholes for publicly supporting fossil fuel investments.

The leaders are also expected to hold deliberations on the outcome of the UN Climate Summit (COP28) in Dubai where the countries reached a deal to transition away from all fossil fuels, and make efforts to triple renewable energy capacities by 2030 and double energy-efficiency by the end of this decade.