- G7 countries have committed to a target of over 1 TW solar PV capacity by 2030
- They have also agreed to report 150 GW offshore wind capacity by 2030 through their existing targets and policy measures
- Nations have agreed to phase-out domestic unabated fossil fuels power ‘as soon as possible’
- Reaffirm to aim for a fully or predominantly decarbonized power sector by 2035
- They will promote improvement in innovative technologies such as perovskite solar cells and floating offshore wind power, wave energy
G7, the group of 7 industrial nations of the world, have committed to renewable energy expansion globally targeting a collective increase of solar PV capacity to more than 1 TW along with 150 GW offshore wind by 2030 through their existing targets and policy measures, while making efforts to bring down costs.
These commitments were made during a meeting of the Ministers of Climate, Energy and the Environment from the member states of France, the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada along with the European Union (EU) as its non-enumerated member, at the G7 2023 Summit in Japan. These ministerial level meetings are geared towards the final G7 meeting to be held in May 2023.
Solar power target of over 1 TW by 2030 isn’t too ambitious an aim since the world has already installed 1 TW in 2022. According to global PV researchers, the world is likely to reach another 1 TW as early as around 2024. What we need to meet global decarbonization targets is over 75 TW PV capacity by 2050 (see PV Must Grow At 25% Annually Till 2030).
The consensus is to end the construction of new unabated coal-fired power generation projects globally and accelerate the phase-out of domestic unabated fossil fuels power ‘in a manner consistent with a just transition’ and ‘as soon as possible’ to achieve 2050 net zero ambition. No specific timeline has been set to ensure this phase-out.
They reaffirmed the commitment to achieving a fully or predominantly decarbonized power sector by 2035.
Commitments have been made by G7 to support efforts to develop, demonstrate and deploy clean and renewable energy solutions in order to achieve the target of net zero by 2050. Renewable energy use will be promoted in heating, cooling, transportation and industrial sectors, while also encouraging the development of prosumers and citizens energy communities.
“We will accelerate the deployment of renewable energies such as solar, onshore/offshore wind, hydropower, geothermal, sustainable biomass, biomethane, tidal using modern technologies, as well as investing in the development and deployment of next-generation technologies and developing secure, sustainable and resilient supply chains,” stated the ministers.
At the same time, they have agreed to promote improvement in innovative technologies such as perovskite solar cells and floating offshore wind power, wave energy and in international standards of evaluation methods for introducing new technologies under international coordination.
Additionally, the ministers agreed upon decentralizing supply chains so as to reduce reliance on insecure or monopolistic energy supply chains to protect environment and human rights.
Multilateral development banks (MDB) and international financial institutions (IFI) have also been called upon to scale up funding and simplify access to climate finance to help achieve the goals of Paris Agreement.
