G7: The times are changing
9 June 2015
There’s a lot of G7 analysis out there, but you read it here first: the end of fossil fuels is on the global agenda. To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, we need to get off fossil fuels, rapidly and completely.
Increasingly, this reality is being understood by governments and investors—and now, the leaders of the world’s largest industrialised countries. The just-concluded G7 has put the end of fossil fuels on the global agenda, calling for decarbonisation over the course of this century.
But when, exactly? There are those who think we can wait until the end of the century, but that would drive the world into an unprecedented humanitarian and ecological disaster. Rather, the answer is to speed up the just transition to globally phasing out fossil fuel emissions and phasing-in 100% renewable energy by 2050. A strong long-term goal in the Paris Agreement must reflect this.
Beyond the suggested global decarbonisation goal, the G7 has also agreed to do their share, transforming their own energy sectors by 2050. (And this means only 100% renewable energy, right?) They also plan to support initiatives promoting renewable energy in developing countries, particularly in Africa.
So ECO congratulates the G7 on their newfound long term ambition. And now onwards to translating that to the mid-term, particularly between 2020 and 2025, with stronger INDCs in line with energy sector transformation by 2050. Because yes, wherever you look — Canadian tar sands, Japanese coal technology exports, French companies investing in fossil fuels abroad or German lignite emissions — the times are changing.