Utter nonsense to claim G7 cannot act on climate change: UN climate chief

United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell on Monday called on the G7 nations to step up action against the climate crisis and make adequate climate finance available.

It is utter nonsense to claim the G7 cannot – or should not – lead the way on bolder climate actions, Stiell told at the G7 ministerial meeting on climate, energy and environment at Turin, Italy.

“I often hear in forums that, we cannot possibly move too far forward, lest we predetermine the outcome of negotiations in the UNFCCC process”, he said.

“As the custodian of the UN process underpinning global climate negotiations, I am compelled to set the matter straight,” said Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Group of Seven or G7 member states include France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and the European Union (EU)

“There is no reason why this forum, comprised of the world‘s largest developed economies, cannot collaborate to make bolder strides, that would boost what is possible within the global climate negotiations,” Stiell said.

Currently, the G7 are collectively only targeting a doubling of renewable capacity, leaving a gap of 0.7 TW (Terawatt) to tripling according to an analysis by Ember, an independent energy think tank.

Ember is an energy think tank that aims to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy.

According to Ember’s 2030 Global Renewable Target Tracker, the collective sum of the G7 members’ 2030 renewable capacity targets is 2 TW. This is just over a doubling (2.2X) of 2022 capacity (0.9 TW). A tripling of renewable capacity is 2.7 TW, leaving a 0.7 TW gap between current targets and a tripling aligned goal.

The 2024 G7 ministers’ meeting on climate, energy and environment being held from 28-30 April 2024 in Italy presents an opportunity for the world leaders to set an example and build momentum for raised action worldwide.

Failure to do so risks undermining the global goal at its first hurdle. Given the recent acceleration in renewables deployment worldwide leaders should feel confident in upgrading the G7 target to a tripling, Ember had said on April 25.

“G7 leading from the front – particularly through much deeper emissions cuts and bigger and better climate finance this year – is not only entirely doable. It is essential if we are to avoid a global economic disaster. Fossil fuels are the core problem, which is why the UAE Consensus agreed to transition away from them, and that transition needs to be much faster and fairer,” Stiell emphasised.

He added, “The success of COP28 drove home an important lesson to us all that halving emissions this decade is not just a question of reducing the supply of fossil fuels, it is also a question of reducing demand from the countries around this table that outstrips the capacity of the global climate system to cope.”

The 2023 COP28 Summit was the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from November 30 to December 13 in Dubai.

Stiell warned the G7 leaders to not invest public funds in fossil fuel subsidies, which include phasing out coal by 2030 and cutting down on emissions.

The hosts of the United Nations (UN) climate conferences – the United Arab Emirates (COP28), Azerbaijan (COP29) and Brazil (COP30) – had in March announced to cut emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius-aligned nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement by early 2025.

HT had reported on December 13 that the UAE Consensus is a very carefully calibrated decision text that calls on countries to contribute in a “nationally determined manner” to: tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030; accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power; accelerating efforts globally towards net zero emission energy systems, utilizing zero- and low-carbon fuels well before or by around mid-century; and transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems among others.

“I look forward to seeing clear action plans for driving down the demand for dirty emitting fuels embedded in your NDCs early next year. This year as we all know, we must deliver on a New Collective Quantified Finance Goal that enables the scale of climate action we need,” Stiell said.

To deliver on the NCQG, G7 must make progress on finance. “That means more climate funds this year. “It means reforming those banks and the wider financial architecture to embed climate risks. It means working to find new innovative sources of climate finance. And it means debt relief for the countries that need it most,” he told the G7.

Stiell added that the involvement of G7 Finance ministers and treasurers will be crucial. “We can only get the climate crisis under control if they treat bold new NDCs, and a quantum leap in climate finance, as core business. So – if I may be frank – ‘challenging budget conditions’ is not an acceptable excuse for failing to deliver substantial new public climate finance pledges. And any advanced economy that rolls out this excuse should feel doubly compelled to deliver on other finance fronts, like flexing their shareholder muscle to force bigger and faster efforts by MDBs, or pushing on innovative sources of finance,” he warned.

Stiell said that he would gladly call each and every finance minister personally. “I urge you all to take a clear message back to your entire cabinets and policy-making colleagues: We can’t afford to defer and delay. To repeat old text in another communiqué.”