Experts and activists criticize the G7 for being “useless” on climate June 15, 2024

Europe is the fastest-warming continent and the Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change (Photo: Piero CRUCIATTI)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Experts and activists criticize the G7 for being “useless” on climate

The Group of Seven rich democracies failed to deliver significant new progress on climate during a summit in Italy, reiterating previous commitments, experts and activists said on Friday.

"The G7 leaders could have stayed at home. No new commitments were made,” said Friederike Roeder, vice president of Global Citizen.

The leaders meeting in Puglia confirmed the commitment made by their environment ministers in April “to phase out existing and uninterrupted coal-fired power generation in our energy systems during the first half of the 2030s”.

But they left some room for maneuver: instead, countries can commit to phasing out “on a schedule consistent with maintaining a temperature increase limit of 1.5°C within reach, by countries' net zero pathways,” according to the final declaration.

“To stay below 1.5°C, the G7 plan to phase out coal is simply too little and too late, and gas is neither cheap nor a bridge fuel to a safe climate,” said Tracy Carty, a climate policy expert at Greenpeace.

Together, the G7 represents around 38% of the global economy and was responsible for 21% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to the policy institute Climate Analytics.

The group, which is responsible for around 30% of fossil fuel production, “has left the door open for continued public investment in gas”, said Nicola Flamigni, from the climate communications company GSCC.

Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States also reiterated the need to agree on a new post-2025 climate finance target, with them as the main contributors - but again, this was nothing new.

- 'No evidence' -

Dozens of anti-climate protesters sat outside the G7 media center in Bari, wearing T-shirts with a burning olive tree emerging from the blazing Mediterranean Sea.

Europe is the fastest warming continent and the Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change, from droughts to floods.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right government voted against the European Green Deal, told a summit session that climate change needed to be dealt with “without ideological approaches”.

But activists blamed the presence of the CEO of Italian oil and gas giant ENI at a roundtable of leaders on Africa, energy, and climate, showing how Rome's political and fossil fuel interests are closely linked.

“There is no evidence that gas in Africa meets the needs of the population better and cheaper than clean energy and electrification more broadly,” Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder of think tank ECCO, told AFP.

“On the contrary, investments in gas in Africa hurt the public budget and are a key factor in worsening the debt crisis,” he said.

The experts also pointed to the G7's lack of commitment to remaining one of the main contributors to the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), which helps African countries fight climate change.

- 'Half-baked' -

The G7 announced a new Energy for Growth initiative in Africa, launched jointly with several countries, from Côte d'Ivoire to Ethiopia and Kenya, but did not say what the funding would be, if any.

Also unveiled was the Puglia Food Systems Initiative - the G7's fourth major food security initiative in 15 years - as part of a G7 effort to tackle the root causes of unwanted migration.

Nga Celestin, permanent secretary of the Regional Platform of Farmers' Organizations in Central Africa (PROPAC), said it was an “incomplete” initiative that would not work without the involvement of family farmers.

Africa's small farmers produce up to 70% of the continent's food, according to the UN, and experts say their lack of involvement has frustrated previous G7 initiatives.

The ONE Campaign criticized the G7's “meaningless platitudes” in Puglia, with executive director David McNair saying that “this year's summit seriously missed the mark”.

Ella IDE

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