Carbis Bay, United Kingdom—G7 leaders on Sunday willback new conservation andemission targets to curb climatechange, and finalize collective actionon several other fronts, as they wrapup a three-day summit aimed atshowcasing revived Western unity.
The group of leading economies, holding their firstin-person gathering in nearly two years due to thecoronavirus pandemic, will agree to protect at least30 percent of both land and ocean globally by theend of the decade.
The “Nature Compact” struck to try to halt andreverse biodiversity loss is also set to see them com-mit to nearly halve their carbon emissions by 2030,relative to 2010.
It includes mandating the use of only so-calledclean coal for power “as soon as possible”, endingmost government support for the fossil fuel sectoroverseas and phasing out petrol and diesel cars.
Hailing the pact, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson—who is hosting the beachside summit in Cornwall, southwest England‚—said the G7 wantedto “drive a global Green Industrial Revolution totransform the way we live”.“There is a direct relationship between reducingemissions, restoring nature, creating jobs and en-suring long-term economic growth,” he added, inremarks released ahead of the summit’s conclusion.
Climate change was a key G7 priority for his gov-ernment, as it tries to lay the groundwork for hostingthe UN COP26 environment summit in Glasgow in November.
But before the pledges had even been formally ad-opted, environmental campaigners blasted them aslacking enforcement and the necessary scope.
“Despite the green soundbites, Boris Johnson hassimply reheated old promises and peppered his planwith hypocrisy, rather than taking real action to tack-le the climate and nature emergency,” said Green-peace UK’s executive director John Sauven.
He also noted wealthy nations had a “dismal trackrecord” over the last decade honoring internationalclimate finance commitments.
Ties renewed
The G7—Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and United States—were eager to hold theirfirst physical summit since August 2019 to renewties after the discord of Donald Trump’s four yearsin power.