G7 Ministers Agree to Cut Gas Consumption and Speed-up Renewable Energy

G7 Ministers Agree to Cut Gas Consumption and Speed-up Renewable Energy

The Group of Seven rich nations have agreed to call for reducing gas consumption and increasing electricity from renewable sources while phasing out fossil-fuels faster and building no new coal-fired plants, France's energy transition minister said on Saturday.

G7 environment and energy ministers, however, could not agree on a specific date to exit coal power, France's Agnes Pannier-Runacher told reporters on the first of two days of climate and energy talks in Sapporo in northern Japan.

"The G7 countries have agreed that the first response to the energy crisis must be to reduce energy and gas consumption… For the first time ever, the G7 said that we must accelerate the phasing out of all unabated fossil fuels... Finally, it sent a message about accelerating renewable energy," Pannier-Runacher said.

The G7 decided to endorse a goal to "drastically increase electricity generated by renewable energies," a person with knowledge of the discussions separately told Reuters, asking not to be identified because the information is not public.

Ministers also appeared to be considering numerical targets for increasing solar power capacity to at least 1 terawatt and offshore wind power capacity to 150 gigawatts by 2030, the source said.

Energy-poor Japan was pushing for investments to stay for the