The G7 in Turin concludes with a new commitment in favor of renewables. The abandonment of coal and a robust agreement for nuclear fusion must mark the next path among industrialized countries. Russian gas, especially for Europeans, was the ghost of the discussions and the examination of scenarios up to the proposal of a G7 Hub "to accelerate adaptation actions" to changing situations. All enriched by handshakes and declarations.
The summit wanted to resume the COP28 agenda by opening up to developing countries for which a just transition should be ensured. Energy and climate change were (!) the central focus of the interventions, but water was also discussed and the final document mentions a G7 on water. “I am very satisfied with the results and I thank the delegations for the excellent work done" said the host, the Italian Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. It was possible to combine the different needs and sensitivities but also to take due account of the solidarity between the strong countries and those of Africa, it was said. It is important that large economies take responsibility andfinancial burden to lead the challenge for the ecological transition and to implement a new model of sustainable development, we read in the final text. Obviously, they are indicative expressions of a path that has so far been faced with a thousand difficulties and uncertainties. A positive thought should dispel any anxiety regarding the money needed to achieve the summit concentrate. The latest OECD estimate is 103 trillion of investments by 2030.
Stop coal in 2035
2035 as the year of exit from coal it has been stated by everyone, but it is known that many economies see these terms as penalizing. The power plants will have to be closed and at the same time "the capacity of clean energy storage will have to be increased sixfold by 2030, bringing it up to 1.5 TW, globally". The setting of eco targets should now be cleaned of any political rhetoric, since the fight against climate changes it has fewer and fewer followers, especially in the conservative and sovereignist leaderships. Isn't Italian perhaps among these? The contradictions that distinguish the country are in the anti-European slogans of these days against the Green Deal (which should have been written better), against the common agricultural policy, against green homes, against less ideological environmentalist practices.
Nuclear power, however, earned its space at the Turin summit. And if the working group on fusion energy is truly concrete, the hope of seeing private and public investments in the field could come true. Other commitments, explains the Ministry of the Environment, concern the reduction of methane gas emissions from fossil fuel supply chains by 75% by 2030, the decarbonisation of industrial plants and hard-to abbot using innovative technologies including carbon dioxide capture, low-emission renewable hydrogen and biomethane; the supply of critical raw materials. An intense list of things to do conditioned only by good will. Which is sometimes in short supply.
