G7: Don't forget the wartime climate

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Under the impression of the war in Ukraine, the environment, climate and energy ministers of the G7 meet in Berlin. There have been better days in the fight against climate change and species extinction.

The first announcement of what the German ministers responsible for energy, climate protection and biodiversity want to achieve in the year of the presidency in the club of the seven leading industrial nations (G7) has already been made in January. And the wording makes it clear: That was before the Russian attack on Ukraine, which threw a lot of certainties overboard. The environment and climate ministers are now meeting in Berlin, from this Wednesday to Friday (25 – 27 May).

Back in January, Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens said: “My goal is a clear impulse from the G7 for international cooperation and multilateralism.” And Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, also from the Greens, added that she wanted above all to limit the negative trend in species extinction, and: “The sustainable use of resources, adaptation to the effects of the climate crisis and ecologically sustainable supply chains should be further priorities in the G7 year. “

Habeck is now energy manager

But the war changed a lot. Habeck is now primarily on the road as a crisis manager in matters of energy and is feverishly looking for alternatives to Russian oil and gas. He has signed additional gas supply agreements with Norway, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens is currently primarily a crisis manager for energy

And just this week it became known from his house that hard coal-fired power plants, which were actually supposed to be shut down according to the plans for the German phase-out of coal, be available on call until March 2024, so that we can step in if Russia's President Putin should turn off the gas tap completely in the summer. So more coal instead of the comparatively more environmentally friendly gas.

Double German presidency

Due to the distribution of responsibilities within the federal government, two cabinet members will chair the G7 meeting in Berlin: Habeck is responsible for climate protection, Lemke for species protection and the protection of the oceans, which is also on the agenda.

Environmental groups such as Greenpeace focus primarily on energy policy. Greenpeace climate expert Martin Kaiser told DW:  “At the forthcoming G7 meeting, Robert Habeck will have to prove that the war in Ukraine is not only leading to a shift in the global coal, oil and gas markets, but also to a drastic reduction in fossil climate killers.” If the G7 represent a new community of values, they would have to convert electricity production entirely to solar and wind energy by 2035, “end their dependence on gas and completely stop burning coal by 2030. It remains to be seen whether Minister Habeck has the courage to to persuade the USA and Japan in particular.”

A renaissance of coal?

It remains to be seen whether this will succeed. Japan, for example, has 140 coal-fired power plants on the grid. Another 16 are under construction, the planned duration of which is several decades. The country has not decided to phase out coal. And not only in Japan are many politicians back to coal. “Unfortunately, it is becoming quite clear that it could be very difficult to phase out coal quickly,” said Ottmar Edenhofer, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger” on the use of coal worldwide. Because gas prices rose faster than coal prices as a result of the war, a “coal renaissance” is continuing, especially in Asia.

Due to the war: is coal threatening the expansion of renewable energies?

Oxfam: G7 must promote climate finance.

Meanwhile, Jan Kowalzig, climate expert for the environmental group Oxfam, reminds the rich countries of the G7 of the resolutions of past UN climate conferences to finally fulfill the long-promised climate financing of 100 billion US dollars annually.

Kowalzig told DW: “The USA's plans are currently well behind the commitments made last year, and the federal government will not make the necessary increases in the 2022 federal budget to gradually increase the funds for climate finance to 6 billion euros a year by 2025 Germany of all places, in the year of the German G7 presidency!”

Lemke wants to promote species protection

Environment Minister Steffi Lemke has announced that she intends to focus primarily on species protection at the G7 meeting. In autumn, the UN species protection conference will take place in Kumming, China, which was last postponed due to the corona pandemic. The central requirement there is to protect 30 percent of land and sea areas by 2030. It is doubtful whether this will happen.

Environment Minister Steffi Lemke focuses on species protection

In a dramatic call for help, leading German natural scientists called on the government to finally do more for biodiversity within the framework of the G7 presidency. More than 30 naturalists signed the appeal, including the director of the Berlin Natural History Museum, Johannes Vogel. The “Berlin Declaration” states: “Without rapid, far-reaching and comprehensive measures, we run the risk that our planet will lose a million species over the next few decades and that the average global temperature will rise by three degrees.”

< h2>No shortage of big promises

Whether species protection or the climate crisis: there is no shortage of goals. The USA, for example, under President Joe Biden, decided that the electricity sector should be completely decarbonized by 2035. And Germany wants to be climate-neutral by 2045. That's what it says in the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. But for now, the global energy crisis is eclipsing all good intentions. And climate change and biodiversity loss are progressing.

UN Secretary-General Guterres: “Take action before the house burns down !”

A recent report by the World Weather Organization (WMO) in Geneva painted a bleak picture and announced new negative records for sea level rise and ocean acidification. And above all with the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “We must end fossil fuel emissions and accelerate the transition to renewable energy before we burn our own house down.” The hope remains that the climate and environment ministers of the G7 will at least take small steps in this direction in Berlin.