The rich countries of the Group of 7 (G7) agreed on Easter Sunday to accelerate the development of renewable energy and called for a reduction in natural gas consumption as they seek to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels, the G7 said in a statement today.

While member countries acknowledged the need to reduce gas consumption, they nonetheless stated that investment in the sector could help address potential energy shortages, their communiqué said.

G7 ministers are meeting in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo for a two-day meeting on climate, energy and environmental policy to keep global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. Issues of renewable energy sources and energy security have become topical after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Host Japan, which depends on imports for almost all of its energy needs, wants to continue using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transitional fuel for at least 10 to 15 years.

“We will dramatically increase electricity generated from renewable energy sources,” the G7 members said in their communiqué, promising to collectively increase offshore wind farm capacity by 150 gigawatts by 2030 and solar array capacity to more than 1 terawatt.

But they did not set a 2030 coal phase-out deadline as Canada and some other members had called for, leaving the door open for continued investment in natural gas, saying the sector could help address potential energy shortages.

The G7 countries also announced their intention to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040.

“We aim to end plastic pollution by aiming to bring additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040” under the G7, largely through the circular economy and the reduction or elimination of single-use and non-recyclable plastic. joint statement.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters, TASS