Unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe Territories [OTTAWA], 28 June 2022:
Today, G7 leaders including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backtracked on their commitment to stop funding fossil fuels overseas, revealing their failure to learn the lessons of recent crises.
The G7 Leaders’ communiqué published today, at the close of the summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany, watered down the COP26 commitment made by most G7 countries alongside dozens of other nations to end new direct public support for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. Scarcely a month ago, G7 Climate, Energy, and Environment Ministers had reaffirmed the pledge, with Japan signing on for the first time. Canada provides more international public finance for fossil fuels than any other member of the G7: USD $11 billion annually from 2018 to 2020. The commitment from G7 nations could have shifted USD $33 billion a year into clean energy sources.
The Leaders’ communiqué, however, opens the door to exceptions, allowing for taxpayer funds to be poured into gas projects in other countries and going so far as to call increased investment in liquified natural gas (LNG) “necessary.”
“The G7 commitment on fossil fuel finance is so riddled with holes, it could be mistaken for Swiss cheese,” said Eddy Pérez, International Climate Diplomacy Manager at Climate Action Network – Réseau action climat Canada. “When it comes to cutting their addiction to fossil fuels, wealthy polluters continue to take one step forward, two steps back. They claim to understand the urgency of climate action, but underlying those nice words is a refusal to change their colonial habits of expansion and extraction – to the cost of the world’s poorest and most marginalized people.”
The science is clear: oil, gas, and coal expansion must be stopped to protect people and communities from climate harm. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called new investment in fossil fuels “moral and economic madness.”
As European countries look for alternative energy sources in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the oil and gas industry is profiteering from the crisis and using it to justify expanded infrastructure and new projects that would not come online in time to help with the current crisis, but that would lock in fossil fuel dependence for decades to come. Renewable sources such as wind and solar as well as energy efficiency measures can be scaled up far more quickly, cheaply, and without sparking disastrous global temperature rise.
Weakening the commitment is a nakedly opportunistic move from G7 host Germany, whose Chancellor Olaf Scholz is interested in pursuing gas projects in Senegal. Civil society voices such as Power Shift Africa director Mohamed Adow and Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate have called out the dash for gas in Africa as a cynical attempt to extract a few final years of profit from a dying industry and dump the long-term financial and climate consequences onto developing countries.
While the announcement that the G7 would move forward with Just Energy Transition Partnerships with Indonesia, India, Senegal and Vietnam was welcome, allowing continued international public finance for gas projects risks undermining the global energy transition.
“Building a safer future means urgently redirecting financial flows to invest in clean energy and more resilient communities, especially in developing countries most affected by climate disasters,” added Pérez. “Rich countries are still floundering to deliver on their climate finance commitments and refuse to offer compensation for climate-induced loss and damage. Today, G7 leaders failed to do the absolute minimum and stop pouring fuel on the fire. It’s disappointing that Canada did nothing to stop this shameful abnegation of responsibility.”
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Canada’s farthest-reaching network of organizations working on climate and energy issues, Climate Action Network – Réseau action climat (CAN-Rac) Canada is a coalition of 140 organizations operating from coast to coast to coast. Our membership brings environmental groups together with trade unions, First Nations, social justice, development, health and youth organizations, faith groups and local, grassroots initiatives.For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Vicky Coo, Communications Lead
comms@climateactionnetwork.ca, 613-203-3272