G7 ministers agree on new measures against fossil fuels in response to climate change.

The G7 Climate and Environment Ministers met digitally on the 20th and 21st of May 2021.

Environment ministers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Italy, and Germany met virtually as part of a series of meetings leading up to the G7 summit in Cornwall in June.

The online conference was organized by the United Kingdom.

To limit global warming, the G7 has agreed to stop financing coal from abroad.

To meet internationally negotiated climate change goals, the world's seven largest industrialized economies agreed on Friday to stop foreign funding of carbon-emitting coal projects by the end of this year and phase out such subsidies for all fossil fuels.

Stopping support for fossil fuels is seen as a big move the planet should take to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which experts claim would prevent the worst effects of climate change.

The G7 environment ministers have agreed to meet climate goals based on reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

That's a lot more optimistic than the previous limit of 2 degrees Celsius.

Ministers have decided that by the end of 2021, direct financing of coal-fired power plants in developing countries would be phased out.

The decision comes after the International Energy Agency suggested earlier this week that if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, all future fossil fuel projects should be abandoned.

The G7 nations, which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have agreed to "significantly accelerate" the transition away from gasoline in the transportation industry over the next decade.

By the 2030s, fossil fuels should be largely phased out of G7 countries' energy supplies.

The grouping reaffirmed its aim of eliminating "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies" by 2025, and urged all countries to do the same.

There's also a significant pledge to protect 30 percent of land for nature by 2030, which will benefit biodiversity and absorb carbon emissions.

The decisions reached are an important first step on the path to COP26, the crucial global climate summit scheduled for November in Glasgow.

The United Kingdom, which is hosting both the Cop26 summit and the G7 rotating presidency, has urged all countries to phase out coal-fired power generation. However, the controversy over a potential new coalmine in Cumbria, which is now the focus of a public inquiry, has overshadowed its efforts.

Ministers have also refused to put a stop to the planned Cumbria coal mine, and are moving forward with a £27 billion road project and the HS2 rail project, all of which would increase pollution.

Greenpeace UK's head of politics, Rebecca Newsom, said the campaign against fossil fuels "needs to go far further, ending all new coal, oil, and gas ventures at home as well as foreign funding."

“China is isolated globally with its continuing foreign financing for the most polluting fossil fuel,” she said, referring to the agreement to end overseas coal funding.

 Aqsa Muhammadi