Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine has forced Europe to reduce its dependence on gas from Russia and sparked fears of energy shortages this winter as Moscow tightens supplies. In its final announcement from this week’s summit, the G7 said investing in liquefied natural gas was a “necessary response to the current crisis”. He added: “In these exceptional circumstances, publicly supported investments in the gas sector may be appropriate as a temporary response.” Some countries, including Germany, have already said they will restart their coal-fired power stations in a bid to keep the lights and heating on this winter. Climate groups have criticized the G7 for failing to deliver on new climate finance pledges and its renewed focus on gas. “We do not have the luxury of this kind of setback. “There are lives on the line,” said Laurie van der Burg, an activist at Oil Change International, a campaign group based in the United States. The G7 also added a loophole to an earlier commitment to end investment in fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of this year, saying there would be an exception “in limited cases clearly defined by each country under a heating limit of 1.5 C ». Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries agreed to limit global warming to 2 C or ideally 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid catastrophic weather. Alex Scott, head of the program at E3G, a climate think tank, said the G7 summit was “between regression and just stagnation”. “We do not see this G7 accelerating their climate commitments,” he said. “It’s a failure [Chancellor Olaf] “Scholz’s side: did not live up to Merkel’s legacy.” The results of the G7 summit will heighten environmental group concerns ahead of the UN COP27 climate summit in November. All 196 countries that signed the Paris Climate Agreement are expected to reach improved climate targets before COP27, but almost none have. Friederike Röder, senior director of Global Citizen, an American non-profit organization that advocates for environmental protection, said the outcome of the G7 meeting was “very disappointing”. He noted the group’s failure to make significant new climate financing commitments and set a deadline for the phasing out of coal. Germany and Italy, both facing gas shortages due to the war in Ukraine, wanted gas support in the G7 announcement. “In the current situation, we will have short-term needs that will require large investments in gas infrastructure, in developing countries and elsewhere,” said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. He added that this infrastructure could be converted to transport hydrogen later, so that long-term climate goals can still be met. However, following the push from the UK and France at the weekend, the G7 final text also included restrictions on gas investment, which he said should be “consistent with the 1.5 C heating limit and its targets”. Paris Agreement “. This language is similar to the one previously agreed by the G7 environment ministers in May. Scott said: “They have spent a lot of political energy to get this clause in the final text, without end. They returned to where they were. “ German Chancellor Olaf Solz said gas would “be needed for the transition phase”, but that Berlin’s climate targets remained intact. “We all agree on where the future lies and not gas. “This is especially true for Germany – we will be carbon neutral by 2045 and this will have consequences for the use of fossil fuels,” he said. The G7 also proposed new funding partnerships with India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal, which would help provide funding for these countries’ transition to clean energy.
Climate Capital
Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore FT coverage here. Are you curious about FT’s environmental sustainability commitments? Learn more about our scientific goals here
