`Climate Change Topped Agenda as World Leaders Met in Cornwall for G7 - Olive Oil Times
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Climate Change Topped Agenda as World Leaders Met in Cornwall for G7

By Paolo DeAndreis
Jun. 15, 2021 12:21 UTC

Climate change took cen­ter stage as lead­ers of the Group of Seven (G7) – a polit­i­cal forum com­posed of the world’s seven wealth­i­est lib­eral democ­ra­cies – met in Carbis Bay, Cornwall over the week­end.

The lead­ers of the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy reaf­firmed their sup­port for the Paris Agreement and agreed to con­tinue work­ing together to limit global tem­per­a­ture rise to less than 1.5 ºC above pre-indus­trial lev­els.

In our agri­cul­tural, forestry and other land-use sec­tors, we com­mit to ensur­ing our poli­cies encour­age sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion, the pro­tec­tion, con­ser­va­tion and regen­er­a­tion of ecosys­tems and the seques­tra­tion of car­bon.- G7 Joint Statement, 

“We com­mit to accel­er­at­ing efforts to cut green­house gas emis­sions and keep the 1.5 °C global warm­ing thresh­old within reach, strength­en­ing adap­ta­tion and resilience to pro­tect peo­ple from the impacts of cli­mate change, halt­ing and revers­ing bio­di­ver­sity loss, mobi­liz­ing finance and lever­ag­ing inno­va­tion to reach these goals,” the lead­ers wrote in the sum­mit’s final state­ment.

See Also:Climate Change Is Altering the Nutrient Profiles of the World’s Crops

In order to enforce the new poli­cies, the lead­ers have agreed to cur­tail the expan­sion of coal-fueled power sta­tions in their own coun­tries and around the rest of the world.

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The G7 leaders in Cornwall

According to a White House press release, the G7 group has also agreed ​“to end new direct gov­ern­ment sup­port for unabated inter­na­tional ther­mal coal power gen­er­a­tion by the end of this year.”

“More broadly, we reaf­firm our exist­ing com­mit­ment to elim­i­nat­ing inef­fi­cient fos­sil fuel sub­si­dies by 2025, and call on all coun­tries to join us, rec­og­niz­ing the sub­stan­tial finan­cial resource this could unlock glob­ally to sup­port the tran­si­tion and the need to com­mit to a clear time­line,” the G7 lead­ers added in their joint state­ment.

Furthermore, a new $2 bil­lion (€1.65 bil­lion) fund will be deployed each year by the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Germany in devel­op­ing coun­tries for energy-pro­duc­tion projects that will not include coal as fuel unless new coal plants are equipped with tech­nolo­gies capa­ble of cap­tur­ing their own car­bon emis­sions.

The fund will also invest in tech­nol­ogy and train­ing to help devel­op­ing coun­tries adopt cleaner and more sus­tain­able energy pro­duc­tion infra­struc­tures.

Those resources, said the G7 lead­ers, ​“are expected to mobi­lize up to $10 bil­lion (€8.25 bil­lion) in co-financ­ing, includ­ing from the pri­vate sec­tor, to sup­port renew­able energy deploy­ment in devel­op­ing and emerg­ing economies.”

“We reaf­firm the col­lec­tively devel­oped coun­tries goal to jointly mobi­lize $100 bil­lion (€82.5 bil­lion) per annum from pub­lic and pri­vate sources, through to 2025,” they added.

G7 lead­ers have also pledged to work on an indus­trial decar­boniza­tion agenda to boost inno­va­tion and com­mon stan­dards while reduc­ing emis­sions in key areas such as farm­ing, trans­port and steel and cement pro­duc­tion.

“In our agri­cul­tural, forestry and other land-use sec­tors, we com­mit to ensur­ing our poli­cies encour­age sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion, the pro­tec­tion, con­ser­va­tion and regen­er­a­tion of ecosys­tems and the seques­tra­tion of car­bon,” the state­ment read.

Within or before 2030, the seven-nation group has agreed to halve the emis­sions recorded in each coun­try in 2010.

See Also:2020 Tied for Hottest Year on Record, Capping Off the World’s Warmest Decade

By 2030, the lead­ers agreed to work for the pro­tec­tion of at least 30 per­cent of all lands and seas. To this end, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also announced a £500 mil­lion (€580 mil­lion) per annum ​“Blue Planet fund.”

Aimed at reduc­ing marine pol­lu­tion, pro­tect­ing seas and bio­di­ver­sity, the fund will help coun­tries such as Ghana, Indonesia and the Pacific island nations curb exces­sive fish­ing prac­tices while work­ing to pro­tect bar­rier reefs and marine life.

Plastic lit­ter­ing was also cited by the G7 lead­ers as one of the major areas of inter­ven­tion needed to pre­serve bio­di­ver­sity and sea life.

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A ​“Build Back Better World” ini­tia­tive has also been announced by U.S. President Joe Biden to reach devel­op­ing coun­tries with mas­sive pub­lic and pri­vate fund­ing and part­ner­ship aim­ing at reduc­ing the infra­struc­ture gap.

While still lack­ing in the details, the U.S. ini­tia­tive puts envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity at its cen­ter and won the back­ing of the other G7 coun­tries.

“At the heart of our agenda for eco­nomic growth and recov­ery is a green and dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion that will increase pro­duc­tiv­ity, cre­ate new decent and qual­ity jobs, cut green­house gas emis­sions, improve our resilience and pro­tect peo­ple and the planet as we aim for net-zero [green­house gas emis­sions] by 2050,” the G7 lead­ers also wrote.

Those strate­gies will also be pro­posed at the next United Nations cli­mate con­fer­ence, the CoP26 meet­ing, which will be held in Glasgow in November.

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