I was hugely encouraged at the recent climate and environmental commitments made at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, under the UK’s Presidency, including pledges marked with a real resolve to introduce and implement innovative and cutting-edge solutions to this huge, global challenge.
Key commitments include:
- G7 Nature Compact
- Shift incentives and use all appropriate levers to address unsustainable and illegal activities negatively impacting nature, such as through tackling deforestation by supporting sustainable supply chains, and stepping up efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade
- Work to dramatically increase investment in nature from all sources, and to ensure nature is accounted for in economic and financial decision-making
- Support and drive the protection, conservation and restoration of ecosystems critical to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and tackle climate change, such as supporting the target to conserve or protect at least 30 per cent of global land and at least 30 per cent of the global ocean by the end of the decade
- Hold themselves to account for taking domestic and global action for nature through driving strengthened accountability and implementation mechanisms of all Multilateral Environmental Agreements to which they are parties.
- Ocean Protection
- UK launches £500m Blue Planet Fund to protect the ocean and marine biodiversity.
- This fund will support countries to tackle unsustainable fishing, protect and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs, and reduce marine pollution
- Climate Change
- G7 countries account for 20 per cent of global carbon emissions and the Prime Minister noted in his speech that action had to start within the G7.
- As such, while every G7 country has committed to net zero, nations should work to achieve that as fast as they can and to help developing countries at the same time.
- As a result, the G7 commits to almost halve their emissions by 2030 relative to 2010. The UK is already going even further, pledging to cut emissions by at least 68% by 2030 on 1990 levels (58% reduction on 2010 levels).
- This includes slashing carbon emissions, including measures like ending all unabated coal as soon as possible, ending almost all direct government support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas and phasing out petrol and diesel cars
- Build Back Better for the World
- The ‘Build Back Better for the World’ plan will bring together G7 countries under the UK’s presidency to develop an offer for high quality financing for vital infrastructure, from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia.
- This will propel global green economic growth, as the G7 commits to increase international climate finance to $100 billion a year through to 2025, which will help developing countries deal with the impacts of climate change and support sustainable, green growth
- It was also recognised that continued global investment in unabated coal power generation is incompatible with keeping 1.5 degrees within reach and that international investments in unabated coal must stop now
- Therefore a pledge was made to end new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of 2021, including through Official Development Assistance, export finance, investment, and financial and trade promotion support
- Space Debris
- There are currently an estimated 900,000 pieces of space debris including old satellites, spent rocket bodies and even tools dropped by astronauts orbiting Earth.
- Space debris could stay in orbit for hundreds of years and present a real danger to the rapidly increasing number of new satellites being launched each year.
- To counter this, G7 world leaders pledged to take action to tackle the growing hazard of space debris as the planet’s orbit becomes increasingly crowded.
Securing meaningful action from leading economies to tackle climate change and environmental challenges is an extremely positive outcome and has shown the UK to be a global leader in the fight to protect our natural world. In the Prime Minister’s words:
“G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions, and we were clear this weekend that action has to start with us… And while it’s fantastic that every one of the G7 countries has pledged to wipe out our contributions to climate change, we need to make sure we’re achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time”.
This was the first-ever net-zero G7, with all countries having committed to reach net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest with ambitious reductions targets in the 2020s. Later this year, the UK will host the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, which presents the UK with an opportune moment for us to continue to lead the way in seeking real solutions.
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