As we look ahead to the G7 Summit, Regen takes a critical look at some of the global issues facing climate change policymakers, including COP26 coal commitments, western leadership, and the geopolitics of trust.
Climate diplomacy: G7 leaders must put more on the table to enable global decarbonisation
Right now, G7 leaders want developing and emerging economies to stop burning coal and give up the exploitation of fossil fuel resources. Developing nations, with low historic and per capita emissions, want the richer nations to make good on their previous pledges to finance the transition to low carbon technology. China sits in the middle.
In this paper, Regen asks a critical question: what can richer governments do to convince the global community of the sincerity of their climate commitments?
The answer is to lead by example. If the G7 want developing and emerging economies to end coal, they must build trust by delivering the promised climate finance, as well as ending the development of their own fossil resources and reducing the growing dependency on gas, beginning with, for example, the global trade in higher carbon liquified natural gas (LNG).
The paper considers actions the UK could take to begin the phase-out of LNG, which include:
- Curtailing finance for LNG infrastructure projects at home and abroad
- Considering the role of carbon in any future post-Brexit trade deal with any LNG exporter
- Imposing a wider carbon import (border) tax similar to that being considered by the EU
- Considering, in any funding or subsidy scheme, the full cycle of carbon emissions of feedstock fuels used in the future manufacturing of low carbon hydrogen to differentiate between LNG sources
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