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Rome (Italy)
G7 countries agree to end use of coal power by 2035, says UK minister
Turin meeting puts timeline on deal made at COP28 summit, with allowance for fossil-fuel-reliant nations like Japan
www.ft.com
Energy and climate ministers from the G7 group of industrialised nations have agreed to phase out by 2035 the use of coal power where the emissions have not been captured, a UK minister said, giving the group a timeline for meeting the deal struck at last year’s UN climate summit in Dubai.
The COP28 summit ended with a pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, and accelerate efforts towards the phase-down of so-called unabated coal power.
Andrew Bowie, the UK minister for nuclear and renewables, described the agreement reached at this week’s G7 ministers meeting in Turin as “historic” in an interview with CNBC on Monday. “We do have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s,” he said.
An Italian diplomatic source confirmed that the outlines of a deal had been agreed and said more details would be formally announced by ministers after the final day of meetings on Tuesday.
A move away from coal would “help accelerate the shift of investment from coal to clean technology in particular in Japan and more broadly in the whole Asian coal economy, INCLUDING China and India,” said Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder of Italian climate change think-tank EccoClimate.