Daily US Times: World leaders meeting in G7 summit are to adopt strict measures on coal-fired power plants as part of the battle against climate change.
The G7 group will promise to move away from coal-fired power plants unless they have technology to capture carbon emissions.
The decision from the world’s most wealthiest nation’s comes as Sir David Attenborough warned that humans could be “on the verge of destabilising the entire planet”.
He said leaders of G7 faced the most important decisions in human history.
The coal announcement came from the White House, which said it was the first time the leaders of wealthy countries had committed to keeping the projected global temperature rise to 1.5C.
That requires a range of urgent policies, including being phasing out coal burning unless it includes carbon capture technology.
Coal is the world’s dirtiest major fuel and ending the use of coal is seen as a major step by environmentalists, but they also want guarantees rich countries will deliver on previous promises to help poorer nations cope with climate change.
The G7 nations will end the funding of new coal generation in developing countries and offer up to $2.8bn to stop using the fuel. Climate change has been one of the key themes at the three-day summit in England.
Leaders of the seven major industrialised nations – the UK, US, France, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy – are expected to set out plans to reduce emissions from farming, transport, and the making of steel and cement.
They will commit to protecting 30% of global marine and land areas for nature by 2030. They are also expected to pledge to almost halve their carbon emissions by 2030, relative to 2010 levels. The United Kingdom has already surpassed that commitment.
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