The G7 countries have agreed to put an end to plastic pollution within member countries by 2040. However, there are still no answers about when coal power will be eliminated.
In a 36-page document ahead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan in May, the plans have now been presented.
“We are fully committed to stopping plastic pollution with the aim of reducing it to zero by 2040,” they wrote in a statement.
Previously, the EU member states, along with Canada and the UK, agreed to the same goal, but it is now the first time that the other G7 members, namely the USA, Japan, and Italy, are on the same page according to Gadgetadvisor.com.
The G7, which consists of the world’s seven largest industrialized economies, holds annual meetings, and the group’s work is more advisory in nature. However, this weekend’s opening meeting in Sapporo with the energy and environment ministers of the member countries is still seen as a major step forward, at least in some aspects of environmental work.
We will just have to wait and see if this actually will have much effect. Just as a reminder what we are fighting, here is a frightening video of how it can look:
When it comes to how to handle coal power and the phasing out of coal as an energy source, no end date has been reached yet. There is instead a clear disagreement among member countries, for example, Japan’s energy production comes from coal to a third, and the country is also driving the development of so-called clean coal technology (CCT), a controversial way to continue to invest in fossil fuels. The war in Ukraine and the associated energy crisis have also increased uncertainty.
“Obviously, I would have preferred us to agree on a goal to phase out coal power by 2030,” said the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
