G7 ENERGY MINISTERS REACH DEAL TO SHUT DOWN COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS BY 2035

This article was written by Reuters and was published in the Globe & Mail on April 30, 2024.

TURIN, ITALY Energy ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy countries reached a deal to shut down their coal-fired power plants by 2035 at the latest, in a significant step toward the transition away from fossil fuels.

“We have an agreement to stop using coal in the first half of [the] 2030s … it is an historical agreement,” Britain’s Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero Andrew Bowie told Class CNBC, according to a video posted on X. Italian diplomatic sources said a technical deal had been reached.

The accord will be included in the G7 energy ministers’ final communique to be released on Tuesday at the end of a two-day meeting in Turin.

One source told Reuters earlier that diplomats from the G7 countries – Italy, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan – discussed the issue until late on Sunday, before the start of the ministerial gathering.

The agreement marks a significant step in the direction indicated last year by the COP28 United Nations climate summit for a transition away from fossil fuels, of which coal is the most polluting.

Italy last year produced 4.7 per cent of its total electricity through its six remaining coalfired stations. Rome currently plans to shut down its plants by 2025, except on the island of Sardinia where the deadline is 2028.

In Germany and Japan, coal has a bigger role, with the share of electricity produced by the fuel making up more than 25 per cent of the total in 2023.

Last year, the G7 had pledged to prioritize concrete steps toward phasing out coal power generation.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”