Energy and environment ministers from the Group of Seven countries meet in Japan this weekend, but their differences over the pace of phasing out fossil fuels are undermining their chances of adopting strong measures in the face of the pressing climate crisis.

A draft dated April 5 of a joint statement, to be issued Sunday and obtained by Agence France-Presse, revealed deep divisions, especially with regard to the timetable for G7 countries to abandon coal in the electricity sector.

The UK, backed by France, has proposed phasing out coal in the power sector from 2030. But instead, it may reaffirm a more vague goal formulated at last year's G7 summit in Germany of decarbonising the power sector by The year is 2035.

The debate is also raging about the Japanese offering based on appropriate new investments in the field of gas under the justification of "energy security", in light of the turmoil caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022.

In 2022, the Group of Seven decided to allow gas investments as a “temporary” response to the “exceptional circumstances” related to the war in Ukraine.

Japan is also trying to win support from the Group of Seven for its controversial strategy of using hydrogen and ammonia as common fuels for its gas and coal power plants, a model it intends to export to other Asian countries.

Makiko Arima, an expert on public Japanese investments in fossil fuels from Oil Change International, believes that this "toxic" Japanese strategy threatens to "disrupt" the energy transition in Asia.

She argues that Japan's "green transition" plan only promotes technologies aimed at "extending the use of fossil fuels".

Other NGOs fear that this ministerial meeting, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday in Sapporo (northern Japan), will lead to a decline in climate-related commitments.

"If we see some kind of regression with the G7 summit, it will be horrible," said Vice President of the non-governmental organization "Global Citizen" Frederic Rueder. Dubai at the end of the year.

"If you say your house is on fire and the planet is on fire, but you do little in your home to confront powerful vested interests (...) you will not be sending an inspiring signal to the rest of the world," says Alden Meyer, researcher at the E3G climate research institute.
But the world is facing a climate emergency.

In their latest report published in March, the experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that human-caused global warming will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era, from the years 2030-2035.

"We have the knowledge, the technology, the tools, the financial resources and everything we need to overcome the climate problems we have identified," said commission chairman Hosung Lee, but "what we lack at the moment is the strong political will to solve them once and for all."
The Paris climate agreement stipulated containing global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"There is no doubt that the G-7 will send a message about reviving fossil fuels one way or another," a government source involved in the negotiations told AFP.

"The Europeans, who are the most ambitious in the climate field, exert a lot of pressure, and there is a Japanese resistance that is discreetly supported by the United States and Canada," he added.

But the Europeans are not always on the same wavelength. Germany and Italy in particular have been facing an energy crisis since the start of the war in Ukraine.

However, all G7 members have already agreed to call on the countries of the entire world to act “collectively” in this “critical decade”, in particular to allow the start of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions “by 2025 at the latest”, as stated in a part that was published. Approval of it in the joint statement to be issued on Sunday.

This message is directed specifically, and implicitly, to China, according to experts.