Why in News?

• The G7 group has repeatedly acknowledged the urgency for effective climate action but offered little in terms of scaled-up action.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• The Group of Seven (G7)
• Need for Effective Climate Action
• The G7 Climate Ministers Meeting
• Milestones Listed by the G7
• Challenges in the path of Achieving these Milestones
• Way ahead

The Group of Seven (G7)

• It is an intergovernmental informal political forum of 7 wealthy democracies formed in 1975.
• It consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• The heads of government of the member states, as well as the representatives of the European Union (non-enumerated member), meet at the annual G7 Summit.
  • The 49th annual G7 Summit is hosted by Japan.
• As of 2020, G7 accounts for over half of global net wealth (at over $200 trillion), 30 to 43% of global GDP and 10% of the world's population.

Need for Effective Climate Action:

• A series of recent reports have once again sounded the red alert on climate change, saying that the window of opportunity for effective action was narrowing faster than ever before.
• For example, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold was likely to be breached (at least temporarily) over the next five years.
• According to some other studies, 2023 is on track to become the warmest ever, surpassing 2016.
• The recent heat wave in India and neighbouring countries was almost certainly due to climate change. The probability of its occurrence has increased at least 30 times by global warming.
• These reports called for an immediate scale-up of climate action. However, the response does not seem to be able to keep pace.

The G7 Climate Ministers Meeting:

• The meeting of the group of rich and developed nations with the economic heft to create the necessary momentum for global change, presents the latest example of the response gap.
• In its final communique (in Hiroshima, Japan), the G7 listed a set of milestones that need to be achieved for a realistic chance of containing the global rise in temperatures to within 1.5 degree Celsius.

Milestones Listed by the G7 for Effective Climate Action:

• Seeking a global peak in GHG emissions by 2025:
  • The G7 claimed that their emissions had already “peaked”, and asked all major economies to ensure that their individual emissions do not continue to rise beyond 2025.
  • “Major economies” is not defined, but in the context of climate change, it usually includes countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Russia.
• Net-zero by 2050:
  • According to scientific claims, the world as a whole must become net zero by mid-century in order to meet the 1.5C target.
  • The G7 reiterated its commitment to turn net-zero by 2050, and asked all ‘major economies’ to attain net-zero status by that year and to come up with detailed road maps to reach the target.
• Accelerating the phase-out of “unabated fossil fuels” in line with 1.5C trajectories:
  • G7 said that they would eliminate “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” by 2025.
  • For example, the G7 claimed they had stopped financing new fossil fuel-based energy projects “except in limited circumstances”. These circumstances include the need to end the dependence on Russian gas.

Challenges in the path of Achieving these Milestones:

• A global peak by 2025 is difficult:
  • The biggest emissions year so far has been 2019 (about 55 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). After a dramatic drop in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, emissions rose again in 2021.
  • The 2025 peak year is not mandated under the Paris Agreement or any other international decision.
  • India has long made it clear that it sees its emissions growing well into the next decade. Even China, the world’s largest emitter, has indicated that it would peak only towards the end of this decade.
  • Most of the rich and industrialised nations are now seeing a decline, though not at the required pace.
• Net-zero by 2050:
  • Among the major emitters (US, EU), only Germany has said it would attain net-zero status by 2045.
  • China has said it would turn net-zero only in 2060, while India has set 2070 as the target. Some other countries, including big emitters like Russia and Saudi Arabia, have 2060 as their net-zero targets.
• End to fossil fuels:
  • The G7 countries put no deadline to ending the use of fossil fuels.

Way ahead:

• With fast changing technologies, and rapid adoption of cleaner sources of energy, the situation could alter significantly over the next decade.