E3G held a London Climate Action Week event co-hosted by E3G and the German Embassy to the United Kingdom on leveraging the G7 for international climate action in 2022.
Event summary and key takeaways
During London Climate Action Week 2022 E3G, together with the German Embassy to the United Kingdom, hosted a discussion reflecting on the G7 Summit outcomes. Panellists, representing both government and civil society, explored how the G7 can be leveraged throughout the remainder of 2022 for international climate action and set the tone for climate action priorities to be carried through into the Japanese G7 Presidency in 2023.
Speakers discussed the need to accelerate G7 action towards targets outlined in the Paris Agreement and Glasgow Climate Pact. This includes pairing commitments with concrete steps for financing and implementation for just energy transition partnerships, the Global Shield, climate clubs and Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. Recognition that energy security and the energy transition go hand in hand, and the need for a common G7 resolve to increase efforts to achieve both emissions reductions targets and energy security featured strongly, in light of recent changes to the geopolitical landscape as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Strong domestic leadership is now needed to demonstrate how G7 countries remain committed to their own energy transition, accelerating divestment from fossil fuels and delivering on domestic NDC enhancements.
The webinar also explored how Germany will use the remainder of its Presidency to ensure that as we approach COP27, the G7 demonstrates leadership on supporting the partnerships and raising the finance crucial to supporting the energy transition in the Global South, as well as championing climate impacts and exploring financing mechanisms to support countries already facing these impacts. The ambition and framework to develop climate-aligned development pathways with the Global South is further closely linked to questions around reforms to the international financial architecture, critical to provide the scale of finance necessary, not least to address the vulnerability of countries to climate change.
The world now looks to Germany, Indonesia and Egypt to maintain climate ambition and momentum in 2022 and focus on the implementation of high ambition pledges and commitments made in 2021. The urgency of the climate crisis, underscored in the IPCC’s recent AR6 reports, means climate action is imperative. An accelerated energy transition will form a key cornerstone of addressing the global energy crisis, whilst sustaining and scaling the support for an equitable energy transition across the globe.
Speakers:
Dr Ulrich Oberndorfer, G7/G20 Sous Sherpa, German Federal Chancellery
Greg Hands, UK Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth
Dr Kentaro Tamura, Programme Director, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
Clare Shakya, Director of Climate Change Research, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Moderator:
Camilla Fenning, Programme Leader, E3G
