G7 countries have pledged to accelerate a gradual phaseout of fossil fuels and the shift towards renewable energy, as Japan faced significant pushback on central parts of its climate strategy.
The agreement reached on Sunday followed weeks of fraught negotiations between Japan and other member states as the world’s most advanced economies sought to respond to criticism that they were backtracking on climate targets following the Ukraine crisis.
In its final communiqué from this weekend’s summit in Japan’s northern city of Sapporo, the G7 committed “to accelerate the phaseout of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050”.