G7 leaders are meeting this weekend in the Japanese city of Hiroshima to discuss some of the major international issues, such as the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine (with Ukrainian President Zelenski in attendance).

One of the issues to be addressed, which is closely related to the two mentioned above, is the energy transition and the actions that these countries, the most industrialised in the world, must take to be at the forefront of global decarbonisation.

The G7 have made clear that they want to drive the global transition to a clean energy economy. As indicated by A3G, to make real progress towards this objective at the Leaders’ Summit from 19th – 21st May, G7 leaders need to show commitment to scaling up climate ambition at home by fully decarbonising their electricity sectors by 2035, electrifying their transportation sectors, reducing the energy intensity of their economies, and cutting back on their consumption and production of fossil fuels.

Crucially this should include a leaders’ level commitment to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels, including an end to new coal power plant construction, alongside robust guardrails on any mentions of hydrogen and ammonia to ensure any consideration of their use is prioritised for hard-to-abate sectors and is aligned with a 1.5°C pathway and the G7’s power sector decarbonisation goal.

In addition, they must demonstrate willingness to partner with developing countries to build resilient, affordable, and sustainable global clean energy supply chains that reduce dependence on unreliable fossil fuels and benefit workers and local communities.

They must also commit to mobilising much greater public and private financial flows, needed to decarbonise the global economy in line with the Paris Agreement temperature goals, and addressing the mounting debt and fiscal space crises affecting many developing countries.

Finally, they should demonstrate solidarity with vulnerable countries that are suffering ever-more-intense climate impacts by indicating how they intend to fulfil their pledge to double the provision of adaptation finance to $40 billion annually by 2025, reiterating their commitment to operationalising the Loss & Damage Fund by COP28, and signalling their intention to mobilize innovative sources of finance for L&D, including in support of the Fund.

Decarbonisation and coal phase-out

According to E3G, G7 leaders need to firmly express the necessity of decarbonising the power sector by 2035, ideally citing the G6’s preferred unambiguous language of “fully decarbonised” rather than Japan’s added “or predominantly” caveat, which dilutes and offers scope for misinterpretation around G7 ambition. Power sector transition must be contextualised in terms of a broader movement away from fossil fuels, including a commitment to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels, to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest.

At its Climate and Energy Ministerial, the G7 made for the first time an explicit call for an end to new coal construction globally. A firm commitment to “no new coal” at leaders’ level would signal the growing trend away from new coal outside of China. It would mean Japan will need to stop issuing new permits for coal power plant construction, increasing the obstacles for the proposed Genesis Matsushima coal power project to proceed, and invite scrutiny of the US’s CONSOL plant which seems again to be in the pipeline.

Specific targets for deploying solar and wind power will signal that the G7 is confident in delivering clean power at scale, and boost momentum for global renewables targets to be set at COP28.

Though an acknowledgement of a potential need for further investments in the gas sector found its way into the outcome of the Climate and Energy Ministerial, the G7 committed to ensure their alignment with climate objectives, which should de-facto exclude any new upstream gas assets. Furthermore, the G7 has for the first time highlighted the need to accelerate gas demand reduction and clean energy deployment as key instruments towards the security of gas supply.

Clean Energy Economy Action Plan

The G7 is finalising a Clean Energy Economy Action Plan to accompany the Leaders’ Communique, aimed at building reliable clean energy supply chains, deepening cooperation with low- and middle-income countries, driving decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors, and scaling up investment in clean energy manufacturing and deployment.

While it is welcome that the G7 are discussing the role that international trade reforms, scaled-up public and private sector investment in resilient and sustainable clean energy supply chains, and alignment with internationally supported standards on labour practices and human rights should play in supporting decarbonisation, G7 leaders will need to provide more specifics about just how they intend to live into these objectives when they meet with leaders from Brazil, India, Indonesia and other developing countries at their summit in Hiroshima this weekend; otherwise, they risk seeing this initiative dismissed as just nice-sounding rhetoric without sufficient substance to back it up.