🔎 What’s going on?
Last week, powerful heads of state leaders from the G7 nations* met in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England. They discussed humanity's biggest issues that included climate change.
🌍 Here’s what they agreed on...
- 2030 net-zero targets for energy generation formally agreed. Public finance for coal power generation will end this decade for all the G7 nations (no details on when or whether it includes legislation). This is particularly significant for the US, Germany, and Japan who are still heavily reliant on coal for energy generation. The nations committed to stop direct funding for coal power stations in OECD nations by the end of 2021. Plus, $2bn a year was committed to helping emerging countries move away from coal.
- Shared G7 nature compact on biodiversity agreed. Commitments to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity include: dramatically increasing investment in nature, ensuring nature is accounted for in economic and financial decision making; addressing deforestation through sustainable supply chains; more efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade; and supporting targets to conserve or protect at least 30% of global land and at least 30% of global ocean by end of the decade.
- Pledge to tackle carbon leakage. Carbon leakage is fast becoming a concerning risk for nations - this is when climate policies cause companies to relocate to countries/regions where they can pollute cheaply.
❓ Why should I care?
G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions so any commitments from this summit had the potential to be significant in terms of climate leadership. This meeting was an opportunity for G7 countries to raise climate ambitions ahead of the COP26 meeting in November later this year and arguably some progress has been made.
Climate change touches every part of the economy and daily life, from infrastructure, health, trade, central banks to national security so it’s great that it was on the G7 agenda. Even more significant is that they addressed the interlinked biodiversity crisis.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
Although the progress made was notable, nations need to address significant topics ahead of COP26:
- Climate finance. Unlocking climate finance is absolutely key in supporting emerging nations to reach net-zero. The success of the Paris Agreement rests hugely on unlocking climate finance. At this meeting, the G7 reaffirmed the 2009 $100 billion annual pledge by 2020, however, in 2021 this target has still not been met. Canada and Germany increased their contribution to $4.4 billion and €6 billion annually through 2025.
- Innovative policy changes to enable a just transition. Huge infrastructure projects and innovation (e.g. carbon capture storage) have the capability to transform economies whilst driving emissions reduction. Specific plans to rebuild economies recovering from the Covid pandemic with a structural focus on addressing climate change would be welcome.
- Detailed net-zero roadmaps. Ahead of COP26, nations should aim to publish detailed net-zero roadmaps. Concrete pathways outlining exactly how G7 nations will reach net-zero by 2050 is critical.
👤 What can I do about it?
Climate leadership first starts at grassroots levels - personal actions, employee actions, and company actions.
As an individual, measure your personal carbon footprint and start making changes to your lifestyle.
As a business, you can take action by setting net-zero targets and reduce emissions ahead of any official announcements from public bodies.
*G7 nations present at the 2021 summit include UK, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan. Heads of state from Australia, South Africa, South Korea, and India were also present at the invitation of the UK.
Related: IEA outlines a sustainable COVID-19 recovery roadmap
Image credits: Photo by Karen Uppal on Unsplash