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G7 Leads the Charge for Renewable Energy and a Carbon-Free Future

by Michael Nguyen
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Leaders from seven of the world’s wealthiest countries met in Sapporo, Japan recently and agreed on a plan to move towards using more renewable energy sources. However, they did not set an exact date for completely phasing out coal-powered electricity plants. They released a 36-page report outlining their plans for the future which will be discussed again at a summit meeting in Hiroshima, Japan this May.

The G-7 countries (a group of seven of the wealthiest countries) agreed with Japan’s plan to use clean coal, hydrogen, and nuclear energy as sources for ensuring their own energy security. They also made a promise to reduce emissions (the amount of harmful gas released into the atmosphere) by 2050 so that our planet can stay safe from harm.

The leaders said that it’s really important to quickly reduce the amount of carbon gases in the air and make sure most of our energy comes from clean sources by 2035. They also want other countries to stop building new power stations that burn coal, which is a type of dirty energy, so that we can switch over to cleaner energy faster.

Countries have agreed to use mostly clean energy by 2035. This includes phasing out coal-fired power plants, specifically those which don’t use a way to capture the emissions created and stop them from escaping into the air. John Kerry, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, said these meetings had been “really constructive”.

In an interview with Big Big News, Mr. Kerry said it was important to try and stop using fossil fuels like oil and gas. This was in response to demands from China and other countries for help in getting rid of fossil fuels and fixing the energy market which was disrupted by the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

For a while, it has been hard to decide when coal-run power plants should be shut down. In Japan, almost one-third of the electricity is provided by burning coal and also, scientists are continuing to look for ways to make ‘clean coal’ which means reducing carbon emissions from burning coal as much as possible. With these clean forms of using coal, we can even produce hydrogen fuel. When hydrogen is used for fuel, all that’s left behind is water!

The G-7 countries make up 40% of the world’s entire economic business and 25% of the carbon gases that are released in to the atmosphere. Their actions are really important, but it’s also important for them to support countries with less money who are facing the strongest effects from climate change but don’t have enough money to do something about it.

The amount of pollution released by countries with more resources, like the United States, used to be higher than other parts of the world. But now those countries are reducing their emission and instead, places with less resources or developing countries are creating more than two-thirds of all of the pollution in the world.

The leader of the upcoming United Nations climate talks (COP28), who was in Sapporo, issued a statement to ask countries like G-7 nations to give more money to developing countries so that they can move from traditional energy sources to clean energies.

Sultan Al Jaber asked the leaders for their help in creating a “new deal” for these countries; one that will help them fight against dangerous effects of climate change and protect biodiversity, especially in poorer regions.

He said that the countries which are richer need to do what they have promised which is to give $100 billion to poorer countries at a meeting held in 2009. The next meeting where they will talk about it will be held in Dubai late this November.

China’s President Xi Jinping and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently agreed that not enough money is being given by richer countries to help poorer countries deal with climate change. The two leaders made a joint statement about this during a meeting in Beijing on Friday. India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav also said that more money for economic development was needed to help against climate change.

Yadav said that in order for us to reach our goal of having net zero emissions by 2050, countries with more developed economies need to reduce their pollution. This document written in Sapporo takes into account the different energy strategies of the Group 7 (G-7) countries so they all can work together to protect the environment from climate change, damage and pollution.

Alden Meyer, an expert on climate change, said that the language used by world leaders to address the climate crisis is not enough. He argued they need to make bigger commitments in order to stop it.

The group of leading countries known as the G-7 held meetings in Sapporo and Karuizawa to talk about preventing Japan from using more fossil fuels and other issues, like the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the G-7’s commitments were not enough to make the needed changes.

The war has made it very challenging for people to switch over to renewable energy sources; this is because the trade of oil and gas have been affected and their prices have increased. It needs to end as soon as possible due to many reasons.

John Kerry pointed out that energy security shouldn’t be taken too seriously in this case, and also mentioned that Germany has made significant effort in using green energy sources.

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