G7 energy, climate and environment ministers on Sunday pledged to phase out fossil fuels and urged other countries to do the same, but they did not set any new deadlines for abandoning polluting energy sources such as coal.

This new goal, which was mentioned in a joint statement issued after a ministerial meeting of the Group of Seven countries, which has been held since Saturday in Sapporo (northern Japan), does not include fossil fuels attached to carbon dioxide collection and storage procedures.

The ministers of the seven countries only emphasized that this goal falls within the framework of their efforts to achieve carbon neutrality in energy by 2050 "at the latest".

The countries of the group pledged last year to abandon fossil fuels in the largest part of the electricity sector by 2035. They confirmed this goal on Sunday.

In an indication of its difficult negotiations, the group was unable to reach a specific date for abandoning coal in generating electricity, while Britain, supported by France, proposed a deadline that ends in 2030.

And the French Minister of Energy Transition, Agnes Pannier-Ronascher, confirmed that the formula for "phasing out" fossil fuels is "a strong step forward."

She added that it is "an important focal point for expanding this proposition" during the G20 meeting in India and the twenty-eighth climate conference (COP28) in Dubai at the end of this year.

But the French minister admitted that these upcoming global negotiations "will not be easy."

The club of major industrialized nations sought to show unity and will after the disturbing latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in March.

The report said that the Earth's temperature will rise by 1.5 degrees from what it was in the pre-industrial era from 2030-2035 due to warming caused by human activity.

This jeopardizes the aim of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015 to limit temperature rises to this level, or at least below 2 degrees Celsius.

On Sunday, the Group of Seven confirmed its commitment to work with other developed countries to raise one hundred billion dollars annually for emerging countries against global warming, in a promise dating back to 2009 that was supposed to be implemented as of 2020.

A summit is scheduled for the end of June in Paris to improve access to climate finance for developing countries, a critical point for the success of COP28.

Due to the tense global geopolitical situation with the war in Ukraine since last year, and proposals made by Japan, which especially wanted the Group of Seven to agree to more investments in gas, environmental NGOs were afraid that the Sapporo meeting would lead to a decline in climate commitments. .

In tone similar to that adopted last year, the G7 acknowledged in its statement that investments in natural gas "may be appropriate" to help some countries avoid potential energy shortages linked to the war in Ukraine.

But she stressed at the same time the priority of the transition to "clean" energy and the need to reduce the demand for gas.

Another proposal made by Japan is to recognize ammonia and hydrogen as "clean" fuels for thermal power plants, but it was not welcomed. The Group of Seven stressed the need to develop these technologies from "low carbon and renewable" sources.

On the environment front, the environment and climate ministers of the Group of Seven set a goal to end any new plastic pollution in their countries by 2040.

"We are committed to eliminating plastic pollution, with the ambition of reducing any additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040," the ministers said in a statement issued Sunday after talks in northern Japan.

This is the first time that the G7 members have set a date of 2040.

At a press conference after the two-day talks in the Japanese city of Sapporo, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke hailed the bloc's new pledge on plastic pollution, calling it an "ambitious goal".