{"id":35582,"date":"2023-05-22T10:28:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T04:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=35582"},"modified":"2025-04-21T09:04:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T03:34:49","slug":"group-of-seven-g7-climate-wishlist-and-the-realities-of-efforts-to-cap-warming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/group-of-seven-g7-climate-wishlist-and-the-realities-of-efforts-to-cap-warming\/","title":{"rendered":"Group of Seven (G7): Climate Wishlist and the Realities of Efforts to Cap Warming"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Group of Seven (G7)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Need for Effective Climate Action<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The G7 Climate Ministers Meeting<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Milestones Listed by the G7<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Challenges in the path of Achieving these Milestones<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Way ahead<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The G7 group has repeatedly acknowledged the urgency for effective climate action but offered little in terms of scaled-up action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Group of Seven (G7):<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/06\/03\/image-20230603190810-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is <strong>an intergovernmental informal political forum <\/strong>of 7 wealthy democracies formed in 1975.<\/li>\n<li>It consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.<\/li>\n<li>It is officially organised around shared values of <strong>pluralism and representative government<\/strong>, with members making up the world\u2019s largest International Monetary Fund (IMF)<strong> advanced economies<\/strong> in the world.<\/li>\n<li>The heads of government of the member states, as well as the representatives of the <strong>European Union<\/strong> (non-enumerated member), meet at the <strong>annual G7 Summit.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The 49th annual G7 Summit is hosted by Japan.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>As of 2020, <strong>G7 accounts for over half of global net wealth<\/strong> (at over $200 trillion), 30 to 43% of global GDP and 10% of the world&#8217;s population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Need for Effective Climate Action:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A series of recent reports have once again <strong>sounded the red alert on climate change<\/strong>, saying that the <strong>window of opportunity for effective action was narrowing faster<\/strong> than ever before.<\/li>\n<li><strong>For example,<\/strong> the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold was likely to be breached (at least temporarily) over the next five years.<\/li>\n<li>According to some other studies, <strong>2023 is on track to become the warmest ever<\/strong>, surpassing 2016.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The recent heat wave <\/strong>in India and neighbouring countries was almost certainly due to climate change. The probability of its occurrence has <strong>increased at least 30 times by global warming<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These reports called for an<strong> immediate scale-up of climate action<\/strong>. However, the response does not seem to be able to keep pace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The G7 Climate Ministers Meeting:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The meeting of the group of rich and developed nations with the economic heft to create the necessary momentum for global change, <strong>presents the latest example of the response gap.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In its final communique (in Hiroshima, Japan),<strong> the G7 listed a set of milestones <\/strong>that need to be achieved for a realistic chance of containing the global rise in temperatures to within 1.5 degree Celsius.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Milestones Listed by the G7 for Effective Climate Action:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Seeking a global peak in GHG emissions by 2025:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The G7 claimed that their emissions <strong>had already \u201cpeaked\u201d, and asked all major economies<\/strong> to ensure that their individual emissions do not continue to rise beyond 2025.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMajor economies\u201d is not defined, but in the context of climate change, it usually includes countries like<strong> India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Russia.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Net-zero by 2050:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to scientific claims, the world as a whole must become <strong>net zero by mid-century in order to meet the 1.5C target.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The G7 reiterated its commitment to turn net-zero by 2050, and asked all \u2018major economies\u2019 to attain net-zero status by that year and to come up with detailed road maps to reach the target.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Accelerating the phase-out of \u201cunabated fossil fuels\u201d in line with 1.5C trajectories:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>G7 said that they would <strong>eliminate \u201cinefficient fossil fuel subsidies\u201d by 2025.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>For example,<\/strong> the G7 claimed they had stopped financing new fossil fuel-based energy projects \u201cexcept in limited circumstances\u201d. These circumstances include the need to end the dependence on Russian gas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Challenges in the path of Achieving these Milestones:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A global peak by 2025 is difficult:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The biggest emissions year<\/strong> so far has been 2019 (about 55 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). After a dramatic drop in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, emissions rose again in 2021.<\/li>\n<li>The 2025 peak year is <strong>not mandated under the Paris Agreement<\/strong> or any other international decision.<\/li>\n<li><strong>India <\/strong>has long made it clear that it sees its emissions growing well into the next decade. Even <strong>China<\/strong>, the world\u2019s largest emitter, has indicated that it would peak only towards the end of this decade.<\/li>\n<li>Most of the rich and industrialised nations are now seeing a decline, <strong>though not at the required pace.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Net-zero by 2050:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Among the major emitters (US, EU), <strong>only Germany <\/strong>has said it would attain net-zero status by 2045.<\/li>\n<li><strong>China <\/strong>has said it would turn net-zero only in 2060, while <strong>India <\/strong>has set 2070 as the target. Some other countries, including big emitters like Russia and Saudi Arabia, have 2060 as their net-zero targets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>End to fossil fuels: <\/strong>The G7 countries put <strong>no deadline <\/strong>to ending the use of fossil fuels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Way ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>With fast changing technologies, and rapid adoption of cleaner sources of energy, the situation could alter significantly over the next decade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What are Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In an historic international climate agreement at the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris in 2015, countries publicly outlined what post-2020 climate actions they intended to take, known as their INDCs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What does net zero actually mean?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With science demanding that in order to stay below 1.5C we must reach \u201cnet zero\u201d greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-climate\/g7s-climate-wishlist-and-the-realities-of-efforts-to-cap-warming-8621780\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>G7\u2019s climate wishlist and the realities of efforts to cap warming<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>G7 is an intergovernmental informal political forum of 7 wealthy democracies formed in 1975<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}