Climate, Energy and Environment ministers of the main Western industrialized countries (G7) have agreed at their meeting in Italy on a coal phase-out by 2035, British and Italian officials said on Monday.
The decision was confirmed on Monday evening by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs.
A ministry spokesperson said Germany played a key role in the decision to set a clear end date for coal-fired power generation for all G7 countries.
British Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie had previously published the agreement.
“Yes, we have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s,” he told the Class CNBC portal on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial meeting at the Venaria Reale Palace on the outskirts of Turin.
“This is a historic agreement that we were unable to reach at COP 28 in Dubai last year,” Bowie added.
The G7 ministers hope to make a final statement on Tuesday.
German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and State Secretary for Economic Affairs Anja Hajduk are in Turin for the meeting. Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 this year.
Anti-G7 protests broke out on Monday in Turin, Italy’s fourth-largest city, on the outskirts of the meeting.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that demonstrators had tried to break through to the participants’ quarters, but police first stopped them with shields and then also used tear gas, water cannons and batons.
Protesters threw eggs, bottles and smoke grenades at police.
In 2020, Germany passed a law phasing out coal by 2038. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition of SPD, FDP and Greens had agreed in the coalition agreement at the end of 2021 to ‘ideally’ bring this forward to 2030.
The Group of Seven (G7) is a forum of the heads of state and government of seven major industrialized countries. These include Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the US. The European Union is also represented at G7 meetings.
