Letter to G7 Climate Ministers

Dear G7 Ministers,

On behalf of Global Citizen, I am writing to encourage you to use the Petersberg Climate Dialogue and G7 Ministerial Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment to make necessary progress to ensure success later this year at the G7 Summit, G20 meetings and COP29, on the road to Belem.

• Fossil fuel subsidies (FFS): The G7 has pledged to phase out inefficient FFS every year since 2009 and in 2016 committed to do so by 2025. Not only is it clear that this deadline will not be met, but we’re in fact severely off track, with global fossil fuel subsidies having reached an all-time high of more than USD 1.5 trillion in 2022. What we need now is commitments to domestic action plans and timelines, and to redirect funding for climate and development action at home and abroad. In addition, agreement must be reached on a clear definition of 'inefficient' and to provide transparency via a joint public inventory of all FFS, including rationale of why they are considered efficient and why the same objectives cannot be achieved with alternative clean energy.
• Fossil fuel phase out (FFPO): The G7 must take the lead on implementing the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels and outline how they will support other countries doing so globally. This means embedding national targets and timelines on how G7 members will deliver a FFPO in the NDCs update process by 2025 and national energy transition plans that are aligned to 1.5°C. This includes agreeing to phase out coal by 2030 (and not 2035) in line with IEA targets for OECD and EU countries. Climate and Finance ministers must work together to ensure the next round of NDCs re-align efforts with the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, and are backed by robust financing and investment plans.
• New Quantified Collective Goal (NQCG): The G7 must support an ambitious, well defined and structured NQCG for climate finance beyond 2025, to be agreed this year, with clear subgoals for the different types of financing sources and instruments, with a balanced allocation for adaptation, resilience, mitigation and loss and damage. A new transparent tracking system which monitors additionality and coherence with other development financing flows must also be implemented for credible delivery.
• Climate finance: G7 members must improve the tracking of and fully meet their existing financing commitments, including the targets of $100B in climate finance and of doubling adaptation finance. Comparable, timely and verifiable data to verify this delivery must be published. In addition, they must deliver on their loss and damage pledges and support the reform of the global financial system. In particular, they should support initiatives to tax highly polluting and undertaxed sectors, as the international taxation task force, and also highlight the importance of a successful IDA21 replenishment, IDA being the biggest provider of concessional funding for adaptation. Concrete progress on all things financing ahead of 2025 and the new round of NDCs is essential to encourage climate ambition in line with the 1.5 degree goal.

We hope to count on your support and look forward to discussing these proposals with your team.

Best regards,

Friederike Roder
Vice President, Global Policy & Advocacy
Global Citizen

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