'Climate commitments of G7 summit do not meet expectations'

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - Although G7 countries' commitments and pledges on ending fossil fuel use are welcome, they do not meet the expectation on needed actions against climate change in general, according to experts.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on the occasions of the "green" outcomes of the G7 summit recently held in Cornwall, UK, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the head of World Wide Fund for Nature global climate and energy practice, said words on climate action are welcome but climate commitments remain "disappointingly short" of what is needed.

"We expect that by November, the G7 members will have stepped up the climate efforts to match the abyss we are staring into. We need politicians to be single-minded about this unprecedented challenge," said Vidal, who was also Peru's environment minister from 2011 to 2016.

Reminding the G7 countries' commitments against coal, he underlined that there is a need for action on ending exploration and mining of all fossil fuels as well as its subsidies, by considering the most vulnerable countries and communities affected by climate change.

"We need to see specific plans to repurpose public finance to boldly accelerate the full deployment of renewable energy and nature-based solutions, all in a just transition to a new, climate- and nature-aligned economy," Vidal noted.

Calling on world leaders to create a "Global Commission for Economy and Nature," Vidal said he expects the G7 to strengthen their call for canceling all fossil fuels subsidies much earlier than 2025.

"Finally, we are talking about the richest countries shaping our future. ... They must align all public finance towards a climate- and nature-positive, equitable global economy and firmly regulate private financial flows to that same direction," he concluded.

- 'Hopes shaken on climate finance'

Baran Bozoglu, the head of the Climate Change Policy and Research Association, based in the Turkish capital Ankara, said the annual budget of $100 billion specified in the 2015 Paris Agreement to support countries most in need, should be increased.

"Unfortunately, it is difficult to say that the G7 summit was quite successful as part of combating climate change," he said, adding that the G20 summit to be held in Italy on Oct. 30-31 now gains more significance.

People and institutions spent efforts on climate change, expecting to further increase this annual budget of $100 billion at the G7 Summit.

"But this did not happen, and there were no details on how this $100 billion would be provided. Hopes were shaken as details on how to create the $100 billion budget were not shared," Bozoglu added.

Stressing that the G20 summit will be more important for climate action, he noted that the climate finance issue would need to be clearer at the G20 summit in Italy.

He went on to say that the common mind to abandon the use of coal and not invest in thermal power plants is one of the positive developments of the G7 summit.

"Turkey needs to follow the developments intensively, make a will to exit coal and move away from fossil fuel use in the upcoming summits," he suggested, adding that it would be helpful to benefit from the climate budget.

Ratifying the Paris Agreement in the Turkish parliament might also increase the country's lobbying capacity during the negotiations on climate finance.

Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reached an agreement to fight climate change and achieve a sustainable low-carbon future at the Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris on Dec. 12, 2015.

The Paris Agreement, defined as "a bridge between today's policies and climate-neutrality before the end of the 21st century," seeks to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping global temperatures from rising above 2 C degrees of pre-industrial levels over the next century and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 C degrees if possible.