G7 pledge to end plastic pollution by 2040

The industrialized nations of the G7 pledged on Sunday to accelerate the “phase-out” of fossil fuels in all sectors, but without setting a new deadline, a collective goal of zero new plastic pollution by 2040.

• Read more: The G7 final sprint to improve its action to address the climate emergency

Their promise to move away from fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) does not concern the presence of CO2 capture and storage devices, as stated in the joint press release of the G7’s climate, energy and environment ministers. First meeting on Saturday in Sapporo (Northern Japan).

Instead of a precise timetable, these major industrialized countries (the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada) more vaguely include this goal as “eventually” in their efforts to achieve energy carbon neutrality by 2050.

They pledged last year to largely decarbonize their electricity sectors by 2035, a commitment reaffirmed on Sunday.

In a sign of difficult negotiations, they failed to specifically commit to a date to phase out coal in the electricity sector, while the United Kingdom, backed by France, proposed a 2030 deadline.

At the environmental level, the G7 countries have pledged to reduce their excess plastic pollution to zero by 2040, particularly through the circular economy, reducing or phasing out single-use and non-recyclable plastics.

Germany, France, the European Union, the UK and Canada are part of an international coalition that already made the same commitment last year. But this is the first time that USA, Japan and Italy have joined them.

It’s a “strong signal” ahead of the next negotiating session for an international agreement on plastics in Paris at the end of May, France’s Minister of Environmental Change Christophe Béchu welcomed in a press release.

The stakes are important: According to the OECD, the amount of plastic waste has doubled in the world in twenty years, and only 9% of it is actually recycled. And by 2040, the amount of plastic dumped into the ocean will nearly triple, according to the UN.

The decision to move away from all fossil fuels represents a “strong step forward” and was welcomed by Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the French minister for energy transition, in an interview with AFP.

“This is an important tip to expand this approach” to the G20 in India and the UN Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai at the end of the year”, he estimated, admitting that these future global negotiations. “are not going to be transparent”.

G7 members have had to show solidarity and voluntariness since the latest alarming summary report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in March.

According to IPCC, global warming caused by human activities will reach 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels from 2030-2035. This further undermines the objective of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the rise in temperature to this level or at least below 2°C.

The G7 on Sunday reaffirmed its commitment to work with other developed countries to raise $100 billion a year for developing countries to fight global warming.

A summit to improve access to climate finance for developing countries, an important and critical point, is particularly planned in Paris at the end of June.

Environmental NGOs fear the Sapporo meeting could lead to a backlash due to the war in Ukraine since last year and a more tense global geopolitical climate with Japan’s conservative proposals on natural gas.

The G7 last year recognized that natural gas investments “may be appropriate” to help some countries through the current energy crisis. But the primacy of a “clean” energy transition and the need to reduce gas demand were simultaneously emphasized.

Another Japanese project involving ammonia and hydrogen, approved as a “clean” co-fuel for thermal power plants, was also beset by safeguards. The G7 stressed that these technologies must be developed from “low-carbon and renewable” sources.

However, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (MET) Yasutoshi Nishimura said he was pleased the G7 had recognized “various paths to achieving carbon neutrality”.

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), was questioned by AFP and welcomed the message from the G7 that “consolidates our concerns for energy security while providing a road map in the face of the climate crisis”.

Environmental NGOs, on the other hand, were disappointed. “No offense to the rhetorical games of G7 ministers, new investments in gas (…) cannot be compatible with their climate objectives,” criticized Colin Rees of OilChange International.

Greenpeace’s Daniel Reid assessed that “there is something positive” in the G7’s announcements, “but it is still not ambitious”.