G7 Leaders Struggle to Reach Agreement on Climate Change Strategy

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The important leaders from seven wealthy countries gathered together in Sapporo, Japan to come up with a plan that helps the world go away from burning fossil fuels and ending carbon pollution. This meeting will give them ideas on how to handle the problem of climate change before they meet at the G-7 summit in May.

Japan’s Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said that there is a challenge of both fighting climate change and establishing energy security. On the sidelines of themetings, U.S. Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry praised Japan’s leadership in the G-7 group and said they are well placed to take the lead in fixing global warming problems.

The G-7 countries want to end the use of carbon emissions by 2035 in order to protect our environment. This is especially true when there is a conflict going on, like the one in Ukraine. The meetings taking place in Sapporo will be discussing climate change, as well as ways we can protect biodiversity and other global problems.

U.S. leaders think it’s a good plan for Japan to use energy sources such as coal, hydrogen and nuclear power as part of the move towards using renewable energy sources. Meanwhile, other people believe we should switch to renewables more quickly.

The leader of the United Nations recently asked for all countries to stop using fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil by 2040. While most G-7 countries have started using less energy and pollution, lots of economic powerhouses like India and China still use a lot more energy resulting in more air pollution. The U.S., part of the G-7, hopes that leading by example will help other countries follow in our footsteps regarding reducing energy consumption as stated by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Big Big News.

She said that countries should take the initiative and invest in new technology which will eventually reduce costs and lead the way for other countries to follow.

The U.S. government recently allowed a project called the Willow that needs fossil fuel like oil to be built on Alaska’s North Slope, which has lots of petroleum under the land. But many people don’t agree with this decision because it could hurt our planet and not keep President Joe Biden’s promise to stop using so much carbon from fossil fuels and switch over to clean energy sources instead.

Using green energy can actually make a lot of money for us, since experts predict that by 2030 there will be about $23 trillion dollars worth in the global market for renewables!

People are noticing that electric cars have a lot of advantages such as saving money from gas prices. At the Suiso Frontier, which has the latest technology in creating a “hydrogen society”, people are seeing this first-hand.

In Japan, more solar panels are being used in the fields instead of crops while the coastlines have wind turbines. By 2030, it’s expected that 60% of its energy will come from fossil fuels with renewable sources making up 38%. The rest will be generated by new fuels and nuclear power.

Japan is trying to protect its citizens from the bad effects of climate change like extremely hot summers, flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains, and powerful storms.

In Sapporo, they are planning something called a ‘GX transformation’ that aims to make energy usage more efficient and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being put into air – which causes global warming in the first place.

The Japan government is proposing to create a law that will give out 20 trillion yen ($150 billion) in bonds, and by doing so it will draw in 150 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) from both public and private investors which could be used for decarbonizing. Meaning, businesses will also have to pay for their carbon emissions using the carbon pricing system.

However, some environmentalists are not happy about this plan as they think it’ll keep the country’s slowly decreasing nuclear energy industry alive while slowing down the switchover to renewable sources of energy.

Takejiro Sueyoshi from the Japan Climate Initiative which has 768 member companies and organizations, said that we all need to work together to fight against climate change and energy crisis. Additionally, he mentioned that debates about this issue in Japan aren’t advanced enough and we need to think more innovatively.

The JCI asked the people in Sapporo to work harder and reach even better goals. It means some countries already get more of their electricity from renewable sources than Japan’s plan for 2030. The USA is trying its best to get rid of traditional fuels and most of electricity will come from renewables by 2035.

Sueyoshi said that we have to act fast and use this time of crisis as an opportunity to make changes. The G-7 is a group that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.A writer named Yamaguchi reported on this from Tokyo.