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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
The world’s most advanced economies just agreed to end coal use by | |
2035 – with a catch | |
By Angela Dewan, CNN | |
Updated: | |
10:26 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The Group of Seven nations announced Tuesday its member nations would | |
by 2035, but left the door open for countries to stretch that deadline | |
in particular contexts. | |
In a communiqué published after talks between energy, climate and | |
environment ministers in Turin, Italy, the group announced it had | |
committed to “phase out existing unabated coal power generation in | |
our energy systems during the first half of 2030s,” in a climate | |
policy breakthrough that G7 negotiators had previously failed to | |
achieve in several years of talks. | |
But by referring to “unabated” coal, the agreement leaves room for | |
countries to use the fossil fuel past 2035 if their before entering the | |
atmosphere. | |
The agreement also includes a caveat that countries could choose “a | |
timeline consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5°C temperature rise | |
within reach, in line with countries’ net-zero pathways.” | |
That caveat appears to allow those countries to keep using coal past | |
2035, as long as their overall national emissions won’t contribute to | |
global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial | |
levels. Science shows that some of the planet’s ecosystems will reach | |
tipping points or struggle to adapt beyond that point. | |
Several members of the G7, which represents the biggest economies in | |
the developed world, have already come close to ending the use of coal. | |
Coal makes up less than 6% of the electricity mix in the UK, Italy and | |
Canada, and almost nothing in France. But it still comprises 32% of | |
Japan’s electricity mix, 27% of Germany’s and 16% of the US’, | |
according to the think tank Ember. | |
The agreement comes just days after the US Environmental Protection | |
Agency that will require coal-fired power plants to either capture | |
nearly all of their climate pollution or shut down by 2039. CNN has | |
reached out to the White House and State Department for comment. | |
When questioned by journalists on the caveats in the G7’s agreement, | |
Italian Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto | |
Fratin defended the agreement, saying the language shows “G7 | |
countries undertake to phase out the use of coal, without jeopardizing | |
the various countries’ economic and social equilibrium.” | |
The language is weaker than what UK minister Andrew Bowie told a | |
reporter on Monday: that the group had agreed to end coal by 2035, | |
making no reference to unabated coal or wiggle room in the timeline. | |
Despite the caveats, several climate policy experts welcomed the | |
announcement, describing it as a breakthrough after years of roadblocks | |
on the issue. | |
“Stamping an end date on the coal era is precisely the kind of | |
leadership we need from the world’s wealthiest countries,” said | |
Jennifer Layke, the global director for energy at the World Resources | |
Institute. “This decision provides a beacon of hope for the rest of | |
the world, showing the transition away from coal can happen much faster | |
than many thought possible.” | |
But the think tank Climate Analytics said that, while the announcement | |
would put pressure on Japan, the only G7 member that hasn’t set an | |
end date for coal, the 2035 deadline is too late to limit global | |
warming to 1.5 degrees. | |
An shows all coal use in G7 nations needs to end by 2030 at the latest | |
– and natural gas use should end by 2035 – to prevent global | |
warming exceeding the 1.5-degree threshold. | |
“Many of these countries have already publicly committed to phase out | |
dates ahead of 2030, and only have a small amount of coal capacity | |
anyway,” said Jane Ellis, head of climate policy at Climate | |
Analytics. | |
It’s notable that a gas phase-out was not mentioned, Ellis added. | |
“In the last decade, gas has been the largest source of the global | |
increase in CO2 emissions, and many G7 governments are investing in | |
new domestic gas facilities. This is absolutely the wrong direction to | |
be heading in – both economically and for the climate.” | |
G7 should make the transition to renewables faster, Ellis said. | |
Fossil fuels are the primary driver of the climate crisis, and coal is | |
typically the most polluting of all fossil fuels. But putting an end | |
date on coal has been highly controversial. Japan has blocked progress | |
on the issue at past G7 meetings, CNN has previously reported. | |
Almost every country in the world agreed last year to transition away | |
from fossil fuels at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, but failing to | |
put an end date on coal was seen as a shortcoming of those | |
negotiations. | |
The G7 typically leads on global climate policy. The group’s | |
decisions often trickle down or influence the wider G20, which includes | |
other big emitters, like China and India, as well as major fossil fuel | |
producers, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. | |
This story has been updated with additional information. | |
CNN’s Ella Nilsen and Laura Paddison contributed to this report. | |
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