The club of major industrialized countries is under pressure to show unity and strengthen its action after the latest alarming synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in March.

According to the IPCC, global warming caused by human activity will reach 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era from the years 2030-2035.

The G7 must also set the tone against global warming ahead of important deadlines later this year such as the G20 in India and the United Nations climate conference COP28 in Dubai, whose president Ahmed al-Jaber made the trip to Sapporo.

'Significant progress'

"There is significant progress" in the joint communiqué of the G7 being finalized, and this sends a "positive message", assured Saturday in front of journalists the French Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

"For the first time, the G7 says that we must accelerate the exit of all fossil fuels" when they are not accompanied by devices to capture and store their CO2 emissions, she stressed. "This is a major step forward and we would like this language to be taken up at the G20 and then by COP28," she added.

Many NGOs feared that this G7 ministerial meeting would endorse a regression on the climate front, especially because of Japan's conservative positions.

Tokyo was keen to call for new upstream investment in gas, amid the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and to have the G7 recognise its controversial strategy of using hydrogen and ammonia as co-fuels for its gas and coal plants.

"It is necessary to work towards the common goal of carbon neutrality by having varied approaches depending on the circumstances of each country," Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti) Yasutoshi Nishimura said Saturday.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French Minister for Energy Transition, in Mérévillois, central France, April 11, 2023 © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP/Archives

Japan, however, did not really win its case. "We have found a reasonable compromise" by insisting on the "short-term" dimension of gas supply imperatives, explained Ms Pannier-Runacher.

A draft version of the final communiqué, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, recommends restricting investment in the sector and prioritising the "transition to clean energy through energy savings and reduced gas demand".

"Critical Decade"

Japan's other proposal to have ammonia and hydrogen recognized as "clean" co-fuels for thermal power plants was also surrounded by safeguards. These technologies must be developed from "low-carbon and renewable" sources, prefers to highlight the latest version of the G7 text consulted by AFP.

"Given the low expectations (on the Sapporo meeting), the outcome now looks better than many expected," said Ed King of the GSCC climate communications network.

The G7 countries will also reaffirm their commitment from last year to fully or mostly decarbonize their electricity sectors by 2035, according to the draft version of their joint communiqué.

They want to prioritize accelerating their coal phase-out in this area and call on other countries to follow suit, a message that seems to implicitly target China in particular.

But G7 members failed to agree on a date for phasing out coal in their own electricity generation, while the UK, backed by the France, had proposed a 2030 deadline.

Speaking of a "critical decade" for climate, the G7 will call for a 60% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 compared to their 2019 levels, in line with IPCC recommendations.

© 2023 AFP