A commitment from the Group of Seven wealthy countries to phase out fossil fuels faster has been welcomed as a potential step towards a global deal for all countries to do the same, but is facing criticism for not matching the pledge with firm action.
G7 countries' climate ministers on Sunday agreed - for the first time - to speed up their phase-out of the fossil fuel consumption causing climate change, although they did not set a firm date for doing this.
In a joint statement at their meeting in Sapporo, Japan, the ministers agreed "to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest".
"This is an important step forward, after the failure of COP27 on this point at the end of last year," said French Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
At last year's COP27 UN climate summit, countries failed to agree a deal on phasing down fossil fuel energy. A proposal by India to do this won support from more than 80 governments, but was opposed by Saudi Arabia and other oil- and gas-rich countries.
Some, including the 27-country European Union, are hoping to revive the idea ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit, which begins on Nov. 30 in Dubai.
While not legally binding, the idea behind a global deal to gradually quit fossil fuels would be to create a powerful "north star" to guide future climate negotiations, government policies and investments towards clean energy and industries.
"If you could get a consensus decision that this is the direction of travel, that would be huge," Alden Meyer, senior associate at climate think-tank E3G, told Reuters.
But Meyer, who has attended UN climate negotiations since they began in 1991, warned of significant hurdles to clinching the pledge. It took more than two decades of U.N. climate negotiations before countries even mentioned fossil fuels in a summit statement - which was in 2021 - amid push-back from fossil fuel-producing countries and industries.
Reuters