By Anders Lorenzen

The annual meeting of the world’s seven largest economies, G7, which this year is hosted in Italy has pledged to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

The meeting which is hosted by Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni in the southern Italian region of Puglia reiterated the message from last year’s UN climate summit COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels fairly, the communique stated: “We will transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly, and equitable manner, accelerating actions in this critical decade, to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the best available science.” It further included a pledge G7 energy ministers agreed upon in April, to phase out existing unabated coal power generation in energy systems during the first half of the 2030’s.

It also noted and acknowledged that under current global policies, we are not on track to reach what was agreed upon in the 2015 Paris Agreement – to keep temperature increases below 1.5 degrees C.

Lacklustre

However green groups and climate activists were not impressed, arguing that no new concrete ambitions were unveiled and it presented a recycling of pledges already announced. Friederike Roder, Vice President of Global Citizen, said: “At a time when the world needed bold leadership from them, the leaders’ meeting added no value.”

In addition, one could argue that the very same document hinted at contradictory double standards as it endorsed investments in natural gas, a potent fossil fuel. It was done in connection with transitioning away from Russian fossil fuels in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine highlighting it would be necessary for some countries to invest in new gas infrastructure to meet the loss by cutting Russian gas imports.

Climate activists and advocates will be dismayed by the G7 signal that it is more important to cut Russian fossil fuel imports and then urgent climate action.