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The G7 Climate, Energy and Environment finds an agreement on the definitive exit from coal, the deadline for which should be set by 2035. To anticipate the agreement, which will be put in black and white in the press release with which the summit staged at the Reggia di Venaria, was the Energy Minister of the United Kingdom, Andrew Bowie, to the microphones of Class Cnbc. «We have an agreement to exit coal in the first half of the 2030s. This is a historic agreement taking into account that we failed to reach the goal at COP28 in Dubai last year. So being able to have the G7 countries around the table sending a signal to the world that advanced economies are ready to abandon coal is incredible.”
The compromise
On the most divisive chapter at the center of the discussion between the G7 ministers, a compromise has therefore arrived that everyone agrees on, both those who continued to support the use of coal as a transition source and those who, like France, ask for a very stringent timetable both for the definitive abandonment of lignite and for the exit from oil and gas. On the final compromise, there is also the green light from Japan which, despite having committed to achieving net zero emissions by 20250 and creating clean coal, has not indicated a timely program for the definitive exit.
First result for Italy
With the agreement which will also be made official by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Italy thus brings home a first result for this appointment which sees the participation of thirty-two heads of delegation, from the representatives of the G7 countries to those of the European Commission, passing through a large delegation of external countries, from Algeria to Brazil, the next presidency of the G20.
Goodbye coal
In short, the chapter on coal is preparing to be definitively archived, even in Italy where, as Pichetto Fratin himself had explained in recent days, the government is intent on cracking down. “Italy is ready to say goodbye to coal, the fossil fuel that generates the most greenhouse gases,” explained the owner of Mase. «We have evaluated the times: we could get there in the next few months, even if with the current geopolitical scenario it is more likely to talk about one year for mainland Italy and 2027 for Sardinia».
