New Delhi: The agreement arrived at by G7 ministers to phase out the existing unabated coal power generation by 2035 is welcome, but their addiction to gas production and consumption remains the elephant in the room, according to climate and energy policy experts.
G7 energy and climate ministers wrapped up their talks in Italy’s Turin on Tuesday, prescribing the group a timeline for achieving the goal set at the UN climate conference in Dubai last year. However, they failed to make new progress on scaling up climate finance and left open the prospect of public investments in gas.
COP28 in Dubai ended with a pledge to transition away from fossil fuels and accelerate efforts towards phasing down unabated coal power.
The term “unabated” generally refers to the continued use of coal, oil and gas, without efforts to curtail emissions. However, a universally-accepted and precise definition of this term is currently lacking.
The announcement on coal comes two years after the G7 agreed to fully or “predominantly” decarbonise its power sector by 2035. The experts said it could accelerate investment in clean technology in the coal-dependent emerging economies like China and India.
Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder and co-CEO of Italian climate think-tank ECCO, said while the coal phase-out by 2035 at the latest is welcome, the real litmus test for the credibility of the G7 rests on planning the transition away from gas.
Linda Kalcher, executive director, Strategic Perspectives, said the G7 did the bare minimum to advance the debate on the fossil fuel phase-out.
“We need to see concrete plans for the phasing out of coal, oil and gas, and so far, the bloc has only paid lip service to what was agreed upon in Dubai. The G7’s evident addiction to gas production and consumption remains the elephant in the room, given that they continue to allow room for public investment,” she said.
Kalcher said while the G7 confirmed that they will submit their updated national climate plans by early 2025, these should include concrete goals for reducing fossil fuels “so we can quantify the global demand reduction at COP30 (in Brazil)”.
Dave Jones of the global energy think-tank Ember said it has been more than seven years since the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada committed to phasing out coal power, “so it is good to see the US and especially, Japan, finally being more explicit on their intentions”.
The problem is that while coal power has already been falling, gas power has not. The G7 countries have promised to “fully or predominantly” decarbonise their power sectors by 2035, meaning phasing out not only coal but also gas. Coal might be the dirtiest but ultimately, all fossil fuels should be phased out, Jones said.
None of the G7 members, accounting for around 38 per cent of the global economy and responsible for 21 per cent of total GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in 2021, are on track to meet their existing emission reduction targets for 2030, according to an analysis by global climate science and policy institute Climate Analytics.
On coal, the G7 agreement is likely to indirectly shape, in particular, the Australian coal market, which accounted for 50 per cent of the total coal imported by G7 countries in 2023. Thirty per cent of all coal produced in Australia was burned in Japan in 2023.
Ember’s data shows that G7 countries generated 16 per cent of their electricity from coal in 2023, down from 29 per cent in 2015.
Japan had the highest share at 32 per cent in 2023, followed by Germany at 27 per cent.
The United States is in line with the G7 average (16 per cent) while the other members of the bloc have mostly already phased out coal: France (0.4 per cent), the UK (1.4 per cent), Canada (5.1 per cent) and Italy (5.3 per cent).
