After a meeting of the environment ministers of the so-called G7 countries - the US, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan - the politicians announced on Sunday at the end of their meeting in Sapporo, Japan, that they want to add a combined 150 gigawatts of offshore wind power output and 1,000 gigawatts of photovoltaics by 2030.
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In addition, the G7 member countries are to accelerate the shutdown of particularly harmful coal-fired power plants. However, the countries were unable to agree on a specific year for the phase-out of coal-fired power plants. This means that the target agreement already reached last year that the electricity supply should be carbon-free after 2035 continues to apply. In 2050, the countries want to achieve net-zero emissions in the energy systems.
Carbon capture to be phased out sooner
The G7 reaffirmed that they do not want to build any new coal-fired power plants. In addition, the countries decided that they also want to have coal-fired power plants with carbon capture taken off the grid earlier.
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Carbon capture is supposed to filter out the CO2 components from a power plant's emissions and store them in underground reservoirs, for example. The construction of new natural gas power plants and gas terminals is to remain permitted, so that they can be designated and used as transitional technologies. The countries also decided to end plastic pollution by 2040. (tw/mfo)
