Climate, energy, and environment ministers from the seven leading industrial nations – Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, and the EU – reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change while keeping the 1.5 °C goal “within reach through scaled up action in this critical decade,” and to the “full, swift and effective implementation” of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
The Group of 7 (G7) ministers met in Sapporo, Japan, from 15-16 April 2023.
The 36-page communiqué highlights the triple global crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, “an ongoing global energy crisis of unprecedented scale,” health threats, and environmental damage, including that caused by the war in Ukraine.
Against this backdrop, the ministers will advance and promote a green transformation, while leveraging synergies and preventing trade-offs as they work to address climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, land degradation, and the energy crisis by accelerating the clean energy transition, resource efficiency, and a circular economy, to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs. The ministers acknowledge the vital role of science and innovation in supporting these efforts.
The ministers commit to sustainable value chains, stress the importance of strengthening critical minerals supply to realize a net-zero economy, and commit to strengthening the deployment and implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NbS).
On biodiversity, the ministers highlight “the importance of driving the transition to nature positive economies” and reaffirm their commitment to achieving the target of effectively conserving and managing at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and at least 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030 (30 by 30). They reiterate their commitment to “substantially increase … national and international funding for nature by 2025,” and welcome the conclusion of the high seas treaty talks under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
On plastic, the ministers express their commitment to end plastic pollution, “with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040,” and welcome the ongoing negotiations towards a plastics treaty.
On climate and energy, the communiqué details actions, commitments, and priorities on: system transformation to realize emissions reduction and economic growth; transition of the energy sector; decarbonization of industry, transport, and buildings; and enhancement of resilience and support for climate actions, especially for the most vulnerable people.
The ministers also outline their commitments and aspirations in the areas of, inter alia, forests and land degradation, water, the ocean, food, the circular economy, air pollution, and health, as well as finance and international assistance and coordination.
